title: Olfactory cues modulate facial attractiveness.
abstract: We report an experiment designed to investigate whether olfactory cues can influence people's judgments of facial attractiveness. Sixteen female participants judged the attractiveness of a series of male faces presented briefly on a computer monitor using a 9-point visual rating scale. While viewing each face, the participants were simultaneously presented with either clean air or else with 1 of 4 odorants (the odor was varied on a trial-by-trial basis) from a custom-built olfactometer. We included 2 pleasant odors (geranium and a male fragrance) and 2 unpleasant odors (rubber and body odor) as confirmed by pilot testing. The results showed that the participants rated the male faces as being significantly less attractive in the presence of an unpleasant odor than when the faces were presented together with a pleasant odor or with clean air (these conditions did not differ significantly). These results demonstrate the cross-modal influence that unpleasant odors can have on people's judgments of facial attractiveness. Interestingly, this pattern of results was unaffected by whether the odors were body relevant (the body odor and the male fragrance) or not (the rubber and geranium odors).
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3UD, Oxford, UK. dematte@form.unitn.it
authors.forename: M Luisa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Demattè
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Osterbauer
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Spence
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001504:Beauty; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D013268:Stimulation, Chemical