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If we were ever put in the position of losing one of our five senses, would anyone really give up their sense of smell? Sure, it's nice to have, but it's not as essential as sight, touch, or hearing, right?
At least, that's what we've always believed. But it turns out that this 'least important' sense is far more influential than we ever thought. There's an incredible range of subtle, subconscious cues we can only pick up if our sense of smell is working properly.
10. You Can Detect Someone's Age by Their Scent
You’ve likely heard the stereotype that older people have a distinct smell. Whether it’s from personal experience or just through pop culture, most of us come to accept the idea of an “old person smell” as inevitable. And in an odd way, there's some truth to it.
In a study that involved placing pads under people's armpits and then asking others to smell them, scientists found that participants could reliably tell the difference between the odors of people over seventy-five and those of younger individuals.
What’s interesting is that the smell isn’t necessarily unpleasant. Scientists suggest that the negative associations we have with the so-called “old person smell” are likely more tied to our fear of aging than an actual aversion to someone's body odor.
9. You Can Use Smell to Wake Yourself Up
As the most widely used psychoactive substance in the world, it’s safe to say that many of us indulge in a cup of coffee from time to time. However, a study suggests you might not need to actually drink it to experience its benefits.
In an experiment involving rats, researchers discovered that the scent of coffee triggers the release of proteins in the brain that help protect nerve cells from stress—much like the effect you experience when you drink coffee.
8. You Can Smell Fear
Although it might sound like a line from a thriller, the ability to detect fear through smell is a real human trait that evolved for survival. Not only can we identify the scent of fear in others, but it also triggers our own natural response to fear upon detecting it.
The evolutionary purpose behind this ability is that humans, like all social animals, thrive when functioning as a group. If one individual is paralyzed by fear to the point where they can’t express their panic, the scent of their terror—along with their body language—spreads fear to others in the group, ensuring that everyone stays emotionally and, to some degree, physically coordinated.
While we don’t often face predators in our daily lives, we still have the occasional encounter with fear—such as horror movies in theaters. The basic principle still applies, though, functioning in much the same way.
7. Women Can Smell When a Man Is Aroused
Men may believe they’re being discreet in their romantic gestures, but scientific research shows there’s no hiding their arousal from women. A woman can detect a man’s level of sexual excitement just through his scent—and it’s not just an unconscious sense. In studies, women who sniffed pads soaked with the sweat of aroused men showed brain activity in areas typically involved in emotional perception.
But what about men? Do their noses play any role in their ongoing pursuit of romance? Absolutely—but in a different way. While women have a distinct advantage in sensing the intentions of potential sexual partners, men possess a slightly different skill:
6. Men Can Detect When a Woman Is Ovulating
While a man’s ability to sense a woman’s sexual excitement may be subconscious, his capacity to recognize when she’s most fertile is not. In a blind experiment, scientists found that heterosexual men consistently rated the T-shirts of ovulating women as more “pleasant” or “sexy” compared to those of non-fertile women. It turns out that men can pick up on this scent even a week after the shirts were worn.
5. You Can Smell a Sexual Compatibility
When you look at the results from various studies on people's sexual preferences based on different body odors, an intriguing pattern emerges: sexual attraction is, in fact, detectable through scent.
If a straight man is given T-shirts worn by both gay and straight men and women, he will almost always find the scent of the straight women more appealing than the scent of any other group. The same pattern holds for gay men, who are more attracted to the scent of other gay men, and so on for each group.
Although the results are far from definitive, they lend substantial scientific backing to the notion that homosexuality is rooted in neurobiology rather than being a matter of personal choice.
4. You Can Detect the Direction from Which an Odor Is Coming
We possess the same olfactory skills as a bloodhound—and we didn’t even realize it.
It turns out that every human is born with a capability called “egocentric localization.” This ability lets us determine the source of a smell without moving our head, much like we can identify the direction of a sound. It’s a skill inherent in all of us, though most of us never take the time to refine it.
3. You Can Sense How Healthy Your Children Will Be
Humans consistently choose their sexual partners based on whether the other person's Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) differs from their own. MHC molecules in the body work to protect against foreign invaders, such as germs and viruses.
Selecting a mate with a distinct MHC from your own will enhance your offspring’s MHC, resulting in a stronger immune system and greater resistance to disease. Women are particularly drawn to men with different MHCs—and interestingly, smell is the primary way to detect this compatibility.
For young people seeking a serious relationship, the best advice? Trust your nose.
2. Women Can Sense How Attractive Men Are Through Scent
Many of us have heard that facial symmetry plays a crucial role in a person’s attractiveness. However, studies suggest that symmetry is not just something we perceive visually—it’s something we can also detect through smell.
In an experiment (once again involving smelling other people's worn T-shirts), researchers discovered that women rated the scent of symmetrical men as more appealing than that of asymmetrical men—even if they had never seen, met, or smelled these men before.
In essence, attractive people have an alluring scent—and so do their clothes.
1. You Can Smell How to Perform Better on a Test
While the previous olfactory discoveries have been intriguing, they may not seem immediately useful. Here’s one that actually can improve your life: your nose can help you earn better grades.
You’re probably aware that smells can bring back a rush of old memories, but what you might not know is that without your sense of smell, you may not have been able to recall that memory in the first place. Olfactory perception is deeply connected to memory—it helps both in recalling past events and in committing new information to memory.
So the next time you study with lavender oil, be sure to bring some with you to the test as well.
