{"id":420,"date":"2022-12-15T14:15:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T22:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/the-most-powerful-scents\/"},"modified":"2024-12-17T18:07:12","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T02:07:12","slug":"the-most-powerful-scents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/the-most-powerful-scents\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Powerful Scents?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-3794-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-3794-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"The Most Powerful Scents?\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  For writer Marcel Proust (pictured) the mere scent of a madeleine cookie had the power to transport him back to childhood. (Illustrations by Nadia Radic for USC Dornsife Magazine.)\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=arts-and-culture\">Arts and Culture<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>The Most Powerful Scents?<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  From aiding romance to communicating with God, scent has long been attributed near mystical abilities.\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Margaret Crable<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">December 15, 2022<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_copy_link\">\n              <svg height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 19 19\" width=\"19\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m7.43475275 9.52380952-2.17490843 2.26076008c-1.08745421 1.058837-1.68841575 2.518315-1.68841575 4.0350275 0 1.5167124.60096154 2.9475732 1.68841575 4.0350274 1.058837 1.0874543 2.51831502 1.6884158 4.03502747 1.6884158 1.44087681 0 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xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m8.14285714 9.42857143c-.17142857 0-.34285714 0-.51428571.08571428l7.28571427 6.34285719c.3428572.2571428.6857143.2571428.9428572 0l7.2857142-6.34285719c-.0857142-.08571428-.2571428-.08571428-.4285714-.08571428zm-1.28571428 1.11428567v.1714286 8.5714286c0 .6857143.6 1.2857143 1.28571428 1.2857143h14.57142856c.6857143 0 1.2857143-.6 1.2857143-1.2857143v-8.5714286c0-.0857143 0-.0857143 0-.1714286l-7.2 6.3428572c-.7714286.6857143-1.8857143.6857143-2.6571429 0z\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\" transform=\"translate(-6 -9)\"\/><\/svg>\n            <\/span>\n            <span class=\"a2a_label visually-hidden\">Email<\/span>\n          <\/a>\n                  <\/span>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n \n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>Smell is, in many ways, the most magical and mysterious of the senses. It is what allows us to perceive something that is silent, invisible, can\u2019t be touched and is frequently so unique it cannot be bottled or duplicated. The smell of your beloved, the scent of your child, the odor of a city you visited \u2014 all are complex and tantalizingly elusive, yet instantly recognizable and familiar. But \u2014 much as we might want to \u2014 they\u2019re impossible to preserve for posterity, the way one might photograph a loved one or record their voice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cResearchers have tried to find the smell that reminds people of home, but there isn\u2019t one universal smell that works for everyone,\u201d says\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/norbert-schwarz\/\">Norbert Schwarz<\/a>, Provost Professor of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/psyc\/\">Psychology<\/a>\u00a0and Marketing.<\/p>\n<p>In Western culture, scent is strongly associated with memory, capable of generating vivid flashbacks to past events. In a famed passage from\u00a0<em>In Search of Lost Time<\/em>, Marcel Proust recounts how dipping a fragrant madeleine \u2014 a small French sponge cake \u2014 into lime flower-scented tea unlocks precious childhood memories, declaring: \u201c\u2026when nothing subsists of an old past, after the death of people, after the destruction of things, alone, frailer but more enduring, more immaterial, more persistent, more faithful, smell and taste still remain for a long time, like souls, remembering, waiting, hoping, on the ruin of all the rest, bearing without giving way, on their almost impalpable droplet, the immense edifice of memory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scent\u2019s ability to evoke the past is not its only power. From facilitating romance and seduction to communication with the divine, our sense of smell plays an outsized role in our emotional and spiritual worlds.<\/p>\n<h2>The nose knows<\/h2>\n<p>It turns out, there\u2019s an anatomical reason why smell seems so urgently powerful. Scent is the only primary sense that does not first get processed through the brain\u2019s thalamus (known as the mind\u2019s central processing unit) before being dispatched to the cerebral cortex for interpretation.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, when we inhale a whiff of cedar or chocolate, this input is immediately sent not only to the olfactory and piriform cortex for interpretation but also to parts of our brain that process emotion, associative learning, memory and behavior \u2014 the amygdala-hippocampus complex. \u201cNo other sensory system has this direct and intimate connection,\u201d says USC Dornsife\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cf\/bisc\/heb-faculty-profile.cfm?Person_ID=1080572\">Kurt Kwast<\/a>, associate professor (teaching) of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/bisc\/\">biological sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The swift, involuntary reaction we have to certain scents is likely an evolutionary advantage. Stench, for instance, warns us of spoiled food, illness or death. The smell of smoke or rain, wafting toward human encampments long before the arrival of a forest fire or storm, can also be a first sign of danger.<\/p>\n<p>Our aversion to the odors of rotting organic matter, that if fresh could otherwise have served as food, is so strong it transcends culture. Languages around the world possess an expression similar to the English phrases \u201csomething smells fishy\u201d or \u201cdoesn\u2019t pass the sniff test,\u201d which align scents of decay with a feeling of suspicion.<\/p>\n<p>Simply adding a rotten smell to a room has the power to alter human behavior, says Schwarz. \u201cWhen we play economic trust games in the presence of a fishy smell, it reduces willingness to share by about 50%,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>When subjects are asked questions that contain erroneous statements in a well-ventilated room, many don\u2019t notice, he adds. \u201cHowever, if it smells fishy, you are more than 20% likely to notice something is wrong,\u201d Schwarz says.<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"font-size: 1.2rem; font-style: italic;\"><p>\u201cAnyone who was anyone in premodern India had to have a fairly sophisticated knowledge about the art of perfumery.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Scent-imental reasons<\/h2>\n<p>Sweet scents, on the other hand, have been famed since antiquity for their ability to attract. In Greek mythology, the god Zeus, disguised as a white bull, seduced the princess Europa (after whom the continent is named) with an overpoweringly seductive aroma. Women in ancient Rome anointed their hair with perfumed oils and Cleopatra was said to smear her lips with such sweet-scented oils, so that her lovers would be reminded of her all day.<\/p>\n<p>In the Sanskrit epic of ancient India, the Mah\u0101bh\u0101rata the fragrance of flowers is depicted as playing a central role in the founding of a dynasty.<\/p>\n<p>But if smell in Western society has long been intricately linked with the evocation of memory, providing a pathway back to a former self, removed in time \u2014 although not necessarily in space \u2014 from the present, this notion was not shared by premodern Indians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople in medieval India thought scents please or displease, and correspondingly attract or repel. They\u2019re not interested in the whole smell and memory thing,\u201d says\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cf\/faculty-and-staff\/faculty.cfm?pid=1022649\">James McHugh<\/a>, professor of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/religion\/faculty\/\">religion<\/a>. McHugh is the\u00a0\u00a0author of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/book\/3182\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Sandalwood and Carrion, Smell in Indian Religion and Culture<\/em><\/a> (Oxford University Press, 2012), which explores the olfactory sense in premodern India.<\/p>\n<p>During the medieval period, India \u2014 where the sense of smell played a crucial role in daily life and religious ritual \u2014 was the hub of the aromatic world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot only did the country produce many key ingredients,\u201d McHugh says, \u201cincluding sandalwood, saffron and\u00a0cardamom, it was also at the crossroads of the trade in rare and exotic aromatics used to make costly perfumes, with cloves, nutmeg and camphor coming from Southeast Asia, frankincense and myrrh from the Persian Gulf and musk from the Silk Route to the north.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During that period in India, the complex and creative use of aromatics was considered vitally important in enhancing pleasure to achieve an ideal love life, with perfumes of the period bearing deceptively avant-garde names such as Uproar, Moon Juice, Outrage and Who\u2019s He?<\/p>\n<p>Medieval Indian perfumes also provided a visual experience. Fragrances were diffused using pastes, tinted orange from saffron or white from camphor, rather than alcohol, which was not at that time used as a base for perfumes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNowadays, you can\u2019t tell if I\u2019m wearing a scent. In medieval India, with perfume, you could see it. You would feel it on your body, everyone would see you wearing it, it was a multisensory experience,\u201d says McHugh.<\/p>\n<p>Ancient India was so taken with perfume that savoir-faire about how to mix and blend scents was akin to wine knowledge today \u2014 a sign of elite status.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEducated people appear to have been far more interested in and articulate about smells than we are,\u201d McHugh says. \u201cAnyone who was anyone in premodern India had to have a fairly sophisticated knowledge about the art of perfumery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Medieval Indians were comfortable with the pungency of their natural environment. They also preferred high levels of aromatics, in sharp contrast with today\u2019s Western society which, as McHugh observes, is often far more concerned with masking or removing odor than creating it.<\/p>\n<p>That doesn\u2019t mean we inhabit a scentless world, however. \u201cOften when you wash your clothes or your dishes, you\u2019re using perfume, although we don\u2019t think, \u2018I\u2019m going to go put some perfume on my plates,\u2019\u201d says McHugh.<\/p>\n<h2>My chemical romance<\/h2>\n<p>A more intimate smell has recently emerged as a potential factor in human attraction: \u201cpheromone-like\u201d secreted or excreted chemicals that trigger a social response.<\/p>\n<p>The possibility that love \u2014 or at least sexual attraction \u2014 might literally \u201cbe in the air,\u201d has not only engendered an ongoing cultural and scientific debate, but has unsurprisingly been seized upon by scent manufacturers. A roll-on perfume with a \u201cpheromone elevation\u201d became a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.refinery29.com\/en-us\/2022\/07\/11063729\/pheromone-perfume-tiktok-trend-skin-scents\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tik-Tok phenomenon<\/a> last summer.<\/p>\n<p>The science is still unclear, however, on how dominant a role personal odor actually plays in generating attraction, particularly considering humans lack the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC6050168\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">vomeronasal organ<\/a>, or Jacobson\u2019s organ, used by other mammals, as well as amphibians and reptiles, to interpret true pheromones.<\/p>\n<p>However, small-scale studies have demonstrated that olfactory cues may still influence mate selection. A study in which women were asked to sniff shirts worn by men and then select the most attractive, found that they liked men genetically dissimilar to themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Another study in which men sniff-tested cotton pads that women had used to swab their armpits found the\u00a0men preferred the fragrance of women who were closer to ovulation and therefore more fertile.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea of scent attraction is not mythical; there\u2019s enough to suggest an association,\u201d says Kwast. Of course, mate selection isn\u2019t entirely down to smell. Other studies have found that people select mates whose faces most closely resemble their own, and lived experience shows us that people are attracted to others for a whole range of reasons beyond the physical.<\/p>\n<div class=\"news-image-full\">\n<figure style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/themostpowerfulscents_instorya-3794.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of a woman wearing traditional Indian dress, surrounded by images of brightly-colored spices.\" width=\"630\" height=\"406\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">India has historically been an important producer of scented products and spices.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Holy Smokes<\/h2>\n<p>Scent has also long been associated with the divine. Incense is used in the worship of deities worldwide, from paganism to Buddhism to Christianity. Smoke from frankincense or sandalwood was thought to carry prayers up to heaven, a sentiment reflected in Psalm 141:2 of the Bible: \u201cLet my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A sweet-smelling church was an effective incentive to draw people to Mass by providing them with some relief from the unpleasant odors of an everyday life in which plumbing was largely nonexistent. Incense helped people envision what heaven might be like.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor Catholicism, burning incense is partly about creating a ritual atmosphere that supports prayer and worship,\u201d says\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/iacs\/staff\/\">Dorian Llywelyn<\/a>, president of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/iacs\">USC Dornsife\u2019s Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But incense and its sensual pleasures were also believed to have the power to disrupt. Early Christians denounced its use as pagan practice and, later, during the Protestant Reformation, incense was banned from churches, along with other \u201cdecadent\u201d accessories like flowers and images.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Reformation thinkers were generally very distrustful of all the senses \u2014 except for hearing. Words were the big thing that counted, and they feared anything else would distract people\u2019s religiosity and lead them into idolatry,\u201d says Llywelyn.<\/p>\n<p>Smell can also connote profound personal holiness. In 1918, Padre Pio, an Italian monk, was reported to have begun displaying the stigmata \u2014 marks resembling Jesus\u2019 crucifixion wounds \u2014 while also emitting a strong perfume of violets.<\/p>\n<p>The bodies of many Catholic saints, among them Saint Teresa of Avila, are reputed to have smelled of flowers after they died.<\/p>\n<p>For Catholic believers, such stories seem to confirm that saints possess extraordinary holiness and show the truth of the Christian gospel of resurrection, which promises to restore the deceased to new life. \u201cSuch smells are almost a foretaste \u2014 a \u2018glimpse through the nose\u2019 \u2014 of what salvation would actually include,\u201d says Llywelyn.<\/p>\n<p>Parallels can be drawn with medieval India, where odors not only had the power to attract or repulse but were\u00a0also considered indicators of virtue. Indeed, perfumes and aromatics, along with the sense of smell itself and other odors \u2014 both good and bad \u2014 were used as tools to create order in the universe as well as material and ethical hierarchies. Thus, for medieval Indians, the good and the godly literally smelled divine, while evil stank.<\/p>\n<h2>Saved by the Smell<\/h2>\n<p>We\u2019re still devising new ways to use the power of scent. Alumni Marat Zanov \u201909 and Dawn McDaniel \u201910, who both earned PhDs in psychology,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/1814\/virtually-cured\/\">added odors to their virtual reality program<\/a>, which eases symptoms of PTSD in veterans by enabling them to relive past trauma in a safe environment.<\/p>\n<p>Zanov, a former U.S. Air Force captain, notes the power of smell to take us back to moments of extreme stress.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA veteran might be mowing his lawn on a peaceful summer\u2019s day and suddenly the smell of gasoline from\u00a0the lawn mower will trigger a flashback to a terrifying roadside bomb attack he experienced while serving in\u00a0Afghanistan,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Incorporating such odors in the VR program, in which participants are guided visually through distressing\u00a0memories, is an effective way to help participants relive painful episodes from their past in an effort to combat PTSD. Evoking the past through smell, Zanov and McDaniel argue, could help us heal for the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n  \n        \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-related-stories \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-related-stories\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n    \n                  <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/how-many-senses-do-we-have\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >How Many Senses Do We Have?<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/history-of-mind-altering-drugs\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Prayer and peyote: Students learn the religious uses of mind-altering substances<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/the-sixth-taste\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >And then there were 6 \u2014 kinds of taste, that is<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n            <\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From aiding romance to communicating with God, scent has long been attributed near mystical abilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[75,96,109],"class_list":["post-420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","tag-humanities","tag-natural-sciences","tag-usc-dornsife-magazine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Most Powerful Scents?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From aiding romance to communicating with God, scent has long been attributed near mystical abilities.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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