A cross-cultural study on the attitude towards personal odors

Abstract

Human axillary odor was used in testing the ability of male and female subjects to distinguish between gender and individuals. The subjects also gave a qualitative evaluation of the odors. The tests were carried out in Japan, Italy, and Germany. Of all three cultures, 80% of the participants could significantly distinguish among the odor of individuals; 50% could identify the person correctly to whom the recognized odor belonged. Discrimination between male and female odor was significantly shown by 20% of Italian, 30% of German, and 60% of Japanese subjects. The qualitative evaluation of male and female odor was the same in the three cultures: male odor was classified more unpleasant and less pleasant than female odor. Men classified their own odor more unpleasant than women did with their own. A cultural difference was found concerning partner's odor: though men classified it alike (predominantly pleasant), women differed. Japanese and Italian women classified their partner's odor predominantly unpleasant, German women predominantly pleasant. In general the Japanese subjects classified the odors less often pleasant than the Italian and German subjects did.

Culture and odor categorization: agreement between cultures depends upon the odors

“…This result could be explained by higher similarities between French and American olfactory environments compared to the Vietnamese olfactory environment. This opposition between Western cultures and Asian cultures has been observed by many authors in chemical senses: in ratings of perceptual dimensions (Ayabe-Kanamura et al, 1998;Pangborn et al, 1988;Wysocki et al, 1991), acceptability of body odors (Schleidt et al, 1981), the use of hedonic scale for food products judgments (Yeh et al, 1998), taste perception, and preferences (Bertino & Chan, 1986;Yamaguchi, 1991).…”

“…These differences concerned mostly food odors and were higher for odors specific to a given culture than odors common to all cultures. In contrast, a cultural consensus to judge odors such as body odors, odors of decomposed biological materials, or fecal odors as unpleasant has been reported in studies involving different cultures from several continents (Dilks, Dalton, & Beauchamp, 1999;Schaal et al, 1997;Schleidt, Hold, & Attili, 1981;Wysocki et al, 1991).…”

Facts, fallacies, fears, and frustrations with human pheromones

“…These odorants may also be present in all of our bodily fluids and secretions and are regulated and/or produced in part by the set of genes that code for immune function (human leucocyte antigen; HLA). Several studies have demonstrated that axillary volatiles collected on pads and/or T-shirts allow individuals to identify their own odor as well as those of their spouse and close kin (Schleidt, 1980;Porter and Moore, 1981;Schleidt et al, 1981;Cernoch and Porter, 1985;Hepper, 1988). These studies strongly suggest that axillary secretions contain odorants unique to individuals that may be used for identification (signaler pheromone).…”

The Future of an Applied Evolutionary Psychology for Human Partnerships

“…This is not a new practiceperfumery has existed for several millennia (Stoddart, 1990)-but it is today a billion dollar industry in the Western world. The use of perfumes usually has positive consequences on how individuals are perceived by others in the context of sexual attraction (e.g., Baron, 1981;Fiore, 1992;Roberts et al, 2009), at least partly because of negative associations with, and cultural prejudice toward, those with intense body odor (e.g., Schleidt, Hold & Attili, 1981). However, widespread and constant use of artificial fragrances could potentially disguise subtle, but biologically meaningful, cues carried in body odor.…”