title: On the Communicative Function of Body Odors.
abstract: Humans use multiple senses to navigate the social world, and the sense of smell is arguably the most underestimated one. An intriguing aspect of the sense of smell is its social communicative function. Research has shown that human odors convey information about a range of states (e.g., emotions, sickness) and traits (e.g., individuality, gender). Yet, what underlies the communicability of these states and traits via smell? We fill this explanatory gap with a framework that highlights the dynamic and flexible aspects of human olfactory communication. In particular, we explain how chemical profiles, associative learning (i.e., the systematic co-occurrence of chemical profiles with state- or trait-related information), and top-down contextual influences could interact to shape human odor perception. Our model not only helps to integrate past research on human olfactory communication but it also opens new avenues for future research on this fascinating, yet to date poorly understood, field.
authors.affiliation: 1 Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jasper H B
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: de Groot
authors.affiliation: 1 Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.|2 William James Center for Research, Instituto Universitário de Ciências Psicológicas, Sociais e da Vida, Portugal.
authors.forename: Gün R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Semin
authors.affiliation: 1 Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Monique A M
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Smeets
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D006801:Humans; D055696:Olfactory Perception; D049049:Pheromones, Human; D012938:Social Perception
chemical_list: D049049:Pheromones, Human
keywords: associative learning; communication; context; olfaction; pheromones