Is our liking or disliking of certain odors something we are born with or is it something we learn? Do we dislike the smell of cow manure simply because it’s manure or does it have some type of scent that we instinctively dislike?
Body odor, trash, rotten eggs, etc. Disliked because of the correlation to something bad or disliked because of the properties of the odor?
I don’t know, but I remember a study that said that female children don’t find male sweat to be offensive until an average age of 9 years old. But I wouldn’t say that means it is learned; that is really close to the average age of the onset of puberty.
If I had to guess, I’d say it was like all things, a combination. Somethings you inherently dislike, an unconditioned response. But I do know it is quite possible to classically condition someone to not like a particular smell.
Until the boys are 9 years old, or the girls are?
I don’t think my sweat was really all that malodorous until I was about 9 years old anyway (or whenever the exact onset of puberty was)
Hmmm, interesting question. I’ll be very interested as to any answer.
When I was first traveling in SEAsia, and exposed to a Durian fruit (very famous for being so smelly!), I thought it reeked and could not believe my friends would put it into their mouths!
I was back in Asia every couple of years, often during durian season, and it was still a stink to me. Though I did get so I could eat durian cookies or durian ice cream!
Then, one day, for no good reason, I could smell durian and was, for the first time really, able to smell it as an aroma, not a stench. I could smell the fruitiness, if that makes any sense.
I still don’t eat durian but I don’t react to the smell the way I did initially. And I have no explanation for the change it just happened.
Body odor is an interesting case. Supposedly, BO was a normal background odor of human activity in the days before Speedstick and Arid XXtra Dry.
But then again, IIRC, perfume and similar agents are really, really ancient – ancient Egyptians used waxy mounds of aromatic oils on their heads, for instance.
I grew up in a rural area. When driving past an area with the smell of cow manure I experience a rather positive nostalgic smell.
When I got pregnant, many, many odors suddenly became absolutely intolerable. There is no question that instinct or body chemistry can control our reactions to a scent regardless of any thought/memory connection to it.
It certainly is possible to condition oneself not to be repelled by certain smells that are initially perceived as unpleasant (otherwise, the market for many cheeses would consist entirely of anosmics and masochists).
The reaction to many smells is genetic. However, smell is also closely associated with memory, and a smell that trips a pleasant memory might be thought of as pleasant. An average person might think that a barn smells bad, but to someone who is nostalgic about raising horses or cows might think of it as pleasant.
Genetic reactions to smells such as decay, feces, and infection are life saving because it keeps human kind away from things that could cause disease. If these smells were learned, you’d see cultures that would find these attractive. (Think of Monsters, Inc. where Mike is spraying himself with the orderant “wet dog” before a big date).
But memory plays a big role in smells too. Of all the senses, smell is the closest to memory. A smell can easily trigger memory, feelings, etc. much more readily than sight or sounds. (Taste can too, but much of what we think of as taste is really related to oder).
Body oder is normally not thought as unpleasant except in societies that practice ultra-hygiene where it is taken as a sign of poor hygiene. This is learned since many societies not only see body order as not unpleasant, but even sexy. In several studies, people wore t-shirts in a hot room. Later the t-shirts were sniffed by men and women who were able to identify the wearer’s sex. Other studies have found that men can identify the smell of women who were in the fertile part of their menstrual cycle from the t-shirt.
Cheese is another interesting one. Many people in the West love cheese and the smell of cheese. Many people in Japan find cheese smells disgusting and cannot imagine eating it. One person compared it to moldy socks. I had a Vietnamese friend who loved pizza, but the oder made their parents absolutely nauseous.
So, yes and no. Many reactions to smells are genetically linked, but that could be overridden by memory. One of the most amazing abilities of humankind is their ability to override instinctive behavior with learned behavior. Otherwise, there would be a lot of dead bodies at my workplace. At least until I have my coffee.
Isn’t part of that the changes in body chemistry that occur during puberty, and presumably not a perception issue? A 6-year-old who’s all sweaty after a soccer game just isn’t going to reek the way a 16-year-old in the same situation will.
I’d imagine some scents which are pretty universally repulsive (you might find the odor of cow country brings up childhood memories, but you’re not going to want to get up close and personal with fresh cow droppings) are at least partly instinct. Excrement and rotting flesh smell awful to humans. They’re also full of all sorts of harmful bacteria which you don’t want introduced to your system. That can’t just be random coincidence.
I’ll put in another vote for the partly learned, partly inherited side.
There was a study done with monkeys that I think is applicable. Captive-raised monkeys do not naturally fear snakes, but they can be taught to fear snakes just by watching fear reactions of other monkeys. An experiment was done to show that even watching a video of a monkey reacting fearfully taught monkeys to fear snakes. The monkeys learned to fear snakes as expected.
Then the researchers changed the videos, substituting a flower (which, apparently, these captive-bred monkeys had never seen either). In the video, it now looked like the wild monkey was afraid of a flower. And, yet, the captive-bred monkeys did not acquire a fear of the flower because of this alone.
So, even though fear of snakes has to be learned, it seems like there’s a predisposition to learning that compared to flowers. I suspect there are certain smells that we’re predisposed to not like, which actually makes sense given that the sulfur compounds produced by bacterial decomposition are a good signal of things you don’t want to touch, eat or drink.
Just remembered and had to come back.
My old boss had a “cedar” scented air freshener in his office. To him, it smelled like fine fabrics and furs which were kept in his GrandMothers cedar closet. It was the scent of being dressed to the nines and ready to hit the town. The scent of prosperity, as it were.
To me, it smelled like a hamster cage that needed to be cleaned out.
Funny. I have a fondness for the smell of moth balls since they remind me of my grandparents closets.
Now *that *would make an awesome sig line. A touch wordy, but otherwise spot-on.
But it’s so hard to get their little legs apart.