Abstract
Social communication is one of the major functions of olfaction. Body odors appear to be extremely important in human interpersonal relationships, as shown by the amount of energy we spend every day to control our own “olfactory image”, but also by the serious consequences of olfactory loss on the quality of social interactions. However, many aspects of the social function of olfaction remain as a mystery in humans. Among the many different directions that should be explored to increase our knowledge in this domain, cross-cultural comparisons through the study of differences (cultural specificities) and similarities (universal features) seem to be an interesting option. Universal abilities to perceive and emit one or several particular compounds believed to be involved in a given aspect of chemical communication may indicate a particular relevance at the level of the human species. Of course, there might also be some variations according to culturally shaped differences in rules of social interactions in space (theory of proxemics), and, by extension, in attitudes toward body odors.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Substances which are secreted to the outside by an individual and received by a second individual of the same species, in which they release a specific reaction, for example, a definite behavior or a developmental process (Karlson and Lüscher 1959).
References
Allen C, Havlíček J, Williams K, Roberts SC (2018) Perfume experts’ perceptions of body odors: toward a new lexicon for body odor description. J Sens Stud 33:e12314. https://doi.org/10.1111/joss.12314
Amoore JE (1991) Specific anosmias. In: Getchell TV, Doty RL, Bartoshuk LM, Snow JB (eds) Smell and taste in health and disease. Raven Press, New York, pp 655–664
Bates LA, Sayialel KN, Njiraini NW, Moss CJ, Poole JH, Byrne RW (2007) Elephants classify human ethnic groups by odor and garment color. Curr Biol 17:1938–1942. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2007.09.060
Bensafi M, Tsutsui T, Khan R, Levenson RW, Sobel N (2004) Sniffing a human sex-steroid derived compound affects mood and autonomic arousal in a dose-dependent manner. Psychoneuroendocrinology 29:1290–1299. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0306-4530(04)00046-0
Burke SM, Veltman DJ, Gerber J, Hummel T, Bakker J (2012) Heterosexual men and women both show a hypothalamic response to the chemo-signal androstadienone. PLoS ONE 7:e40993. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0040993
Bushdid C, Magnasco MO, Vosshall LB, Keller A (2014) Humans can discriminate more than 1 trillion olfactory stimuli. Science 343:1370–1372. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1249168
Chaix R, Cao C, Donnelly P (2008) Is mate choice in humans MHC-dependent? PLoS Genet 4:e1000184
Chrea C, Grandjean D, Delplanque S, Cayeux I, Le Calvé B, Aymard L, Velazco MI, Sander D, Scherer KR (2009) Mapping the semantic space for the subjective experience of emotional responses to odors. Chem Senses 34:49–62. https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjn052
Classen C (1992) The odor of the other: olfactory symbolism and cultural categories. Ethos 20:133–166
Croy I, Nordin S, Hummel T (2014) Olfactory disorders and quality of life—an updated review. Chem Senses 39:185–194. https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjt072
Curran AM, Rabin SI, Prada PA, Furton KG (2005) Comparison of the volatile organic compounds present in human odor using SPME-GC/MS. J Chem Ecol 31:1607–1619
Curran AM, Rabin SI, Prada PA, Furton KG (2006) On the definition and measurement of human scent: response by Curran et al. J Chem Ecol 32:1617–1623. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-006-9096-x
de Groot JHB, Smeets MAM (2017) Human fear chemosignaling: evidence from a meta-analysis. Chem Senses 42:663–673. https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjx049
de Groot JHB, Semin GR, Smeets MAM (2014) Chemical communication of fear: a case of male-female asymmetry. J Exp Psychol Gen 143:1515–1525. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035950
de Groot JHB, Smeets MAM, Rowson MJ, Bulsing PJ, Blonk CG, Wilkinson JE, Semin GR (2015) A sniff of happiness. Psychol Sci 26:684–700. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614566318
Dormont L, Bessière J-M, Cohuet A (2013) Human skin volatiles: a review. J Chem Ecol 39:569–578. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-013-0286-z
Doty RL (2010) The great pheromone myth. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
Doucet S, Soussignan R, Sagot P, Schaal B (2009) The secretion of areolar (Montgomery’s) glands from lactating women elicits selective, unconditional responses in neonates. PLoS ONE 4:e7579. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0007579
Doucet S, Soussignan R, Sagot P, Schaal B (2012) An overlooked aspect of the human breast: Areolar glands in relation with breastfeeding pattern, neonatal weight gain, and the dynamics of lactation. Early Hum Dev 88:119–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2011.07.020
Ferdenzi C, Rouby C, Bensafi M (2016a) The social nose: importance of olfactory perception in group dynamics and relationships. Psychol Inq 27:299–305. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840x.2016.1215207
Ferdenzi C, Delplanque S, Atanassova R, Sander D (2016b) Androstadienone’s influence on the perception of facial and vocal attractiveness is not sex specific. Psychoneuroendocrinology 66:166–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.01.016
Ferdenzi C, Mustonen S, Tuorila H, Schaal B (2008) Children’s awareness and uses of odor cues in everyday life: a Finland-France comparison. Chemosens Percept 1:190–198
Ferdenzi C, Schirmer A, Roberts SC, Delplanque S, Porcherot C, Cayeux I, Velazco M-I, Sander D, Scherer KR, Grandjean D (2011) Affective dimensions of odor perception: a comparison between Swiss, British, and Singaporean populations. Emotion 11:1168–1181. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022853
Ferdenzi C, Delplanque S, Barbosa P, Court K, Guinard J-X, Guo T, Roberts SC, Schirmer A, Porcherot C, Cayeux I, Sander D, Grandjean D (2013) Affective semantic space of scents. Towards a universal scale to measure self-reported odor-related feelings. Food Qual Prefer 30:128–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2013.04.010
Fialova J, Roberts SC, Havlicek J (2016) Consumption of garlic positively affects hedonic perception of axillary body odour. Appetite 97:8–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2015.11.001
Frumin I, Perl O, Endevelt-Shapira Y, Eisen A, Eshel N, Heller I, Shemesh M, Ravia A, Sela L, Arzi A, Sobel N (2015) A social chemosignaling function for human handshaking. eLife 4. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.05154
Gelstein S, Yeshurun Y, Rozenkrantz L, Shushan S, Frumin I, Roth Y, Sobel N (2011) Human tears contain a chemosignal. Science 331:226–230. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1198331
Hall ET (1966) The hidden dimension. Doubleday, New York
Hart R (1980) Human body odor. Nexus 1
Havlicek J, Lenochova P (2006) The effect of meat consumption on body odor attractiveness. Chem Senses 31:747–752. https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjl017
Haze S, Gozu Y, Nakamura S, Kohno Y, Sawano K, Ohta H, Yamazaki K (2001) 2-Nonenal newly found in human body odor tends to increase with aging. J Invest Dermatol 116:520–524. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.0022-202x.2001.01287.x
Herz RS (2009) Aromatherapy facts and fictions: a scientific analysis of olfactory effects on mood, physiology and behavior. Int J Neurosci 119:263–290
Herz RS, Inzlicht M (2002) Sex differences in response to physical and social factors involved in human mate selection: the importance of smell for women. Evol Hum Behav 23:359–364. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1090-5138(02)00095-8
Jaeger SR, McRae JF, Bava CM, Beresford MK, Hunter D, Jia Y, Chheang SL, Jin D, Peng M, Gamble JC, Atkinson KR, Axten LG, Paisley AG, Tooman L, Pineau B, Rouse SA, Newcomb RD (2013) A mendelian trait for olfactory sensitivity affects odor experience and food selection. Curr Biol 23:1601–1605. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.07.030
Karlson P, Lüscher M (1959) Pheromones: a new term for a class of biologically active substances. Nature 183:55–56
Keller A, Zhuang H, Chi Q, Vosshall LB, Matsunami H (2007) Genetic variation in a human odorant receptor alters odour perception. Nature 449:468–472. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06162
Kuhn F, Natsch A (2009) Body odour of monozygotic human twins: a common pattern of odorant carboxylic acids released by a bacterial aminoacylase from axilla secretions contributing to an inherited body odour type. J R Soc Interface R Soc 6:377–392. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2008.0223
Kuukasjarvi S, Eriksson CJP, Koskela E, Mappes T, Nissinen K, Rantala MJ (2004) Attractiveness of women’s body odors over the menstrual cycle: the role of oral contraceptives and receiver sex. Behav Ecol 15:579–584. https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arh050
Largey G, Watson R (2006) The sociology of odors. In: Drobnick J (ed) The smell culture reader. Berg, Oxford, UK, pp 29–40
Le Guérer A (2002) Olfaction and cognition: a philosophical and psychoanalytic view. In: Rouby C, Schaal B, Dubois D, Gervais R, Holley A (eds) Olfaction, taste, and cognition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 3–15
Leyden JJ, McGinley KJ, Holzle E, Labows JN, Kligman AM (1981) The microbiology of the human axilla and its relationship to axillary odor. J Invest Dermatol 77:413–416
Lundström JN, Olsson MJ (2005) Subthreshold amounts of social odorant affect mood, but not behavior, in heterosexual women when tested by a male, but not a female, experimenter. Biol Psychol 70:197–204
Mainland JD, Keller A, Li YR, Zhou T, Trimmer C, Snyder LL, Moberly AH, Adipietro KA, Liu WLL, Zhuang H, Zhan S, Lee SS, Lin A, Matsunami H (2014) The missense of smell: functional variability in the human odorant receptor repertoire. Nat Neurosci 17:114–120. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3598
Marchal S, Bregeras O, Puaux D, Gervais R, Ferry B (2016) Rigorous training of dogs leads to high accuracy in human scent matching-to-sample performance. PLoS ONE 11:e0146963. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0146963
Martin A, Saathoff M, Kuhn F, Max H, Terstegen L, Natsch A (2010) A functional ABCC11 allele is essential in the biochemical formation of human axillary odor. J Invest Dermatol 130:529–540
McGann JP (2017) Poor human olfaction is a 19th-century myth. Science 356:eaam7263. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aam7263
McRae JF, Mainland JD, Jaeger SR, Adipietro KA, Matsunami H, Newcomb RD (2012) Genetic variation in the odorant receptor OR2J3 is associated with the ability to detect the “grassy” smelling odor, cis-3-hexen-1-ol. Chem Senses 37:585–593. https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjs049
Menashe I, Abaffy T, Hasin Y, Goshen S, Yahalom V, Luetje CW, Lancet D (2007) Genetic elucidation of human hyperosmia to isovaleric acid. PLoS Biol 5:e284. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0050284
Mitro S, Gordon AR, Olsson MJ, Lundström JN (2012) The smell of age: perception and discrimination of body odors of different ages. PLoS ONE 7:e38110. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038110
Mujica-Parodi LR, Strey HH, Frederick B, Savoy R, Cox D, Botanov Y, Tolkunov D, Rubin D, Weber J (2009) Chemosensory cues to conspecific emotional stress activate amygdala in humans. PLoS ONE 4:e6415. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0006415
Natsch A, Gfeller H, Gygax P, Schmid J (2005) Isolation of a bacterial enzyme releasing axillary malodor and its use as a screening target for novel deodorant formulations. Int J Cosmet Sci 27:115–122. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-2494.2004.00255.x
Olsson MJ, Lundström JN, Kimball BA, Gordon AR, Karshikoff B, Hosseini N, Sorjonen K, Höglund CO, Solares C, Soop A, Axelsson J, Lekander M (2014) The scent of disease: Human body odor contains an early chemosensory cue of sickness. Psychol Sci 25:817–823. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613515681
Pangborn RM, Guinard J-X, Davis RG (1988) Regional aroma preferences. Food Qual Prefer 1:11–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/0950-3293(88)90003-1
Parma V, Soares SC (2017) The role of human body odors in ingroup-outgroup relationships. Chem Senses 42:e19
Pause BM, Lübke K, Laudien JH, Ferstl R (2010) Intensified neuronal investment in the processing of chemosensory anxiety signals in non-socially anxious and socially anxious individuals. PLoS ONE 5:e10342. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010342
Penn DJ, Oberzaucher E, Grammer K, Fischer G, Soini HA, Wiesler D, Novotny MV, Dixon SJ, Xu Y, Brereton RG (2007) Individual and gender fingerprints in human body odour. J R Soc Interface 4:331–340. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2006.0182
Porcherot C, Delplanque S, Raviot-Derrien S, Le Calvé B, Chrea C, Gaudreau N, Cayeux I (2010) How do you feel when you smell this? Optimization of a verbal measurement of odor-elicited emotions. Food Qual Prefer 21:938–947
Porter J, Craven B, Khan RM, Chang SJ, Kang I, Judkewitz B, Judkewicz B, Volpe J, Settles G, Sobel N (2007) Mechanisms of scent-tracking in humans. Nat Neurosci 10:27–29
Preti G, Willse A, Labows JN, Leyden JJ, Wahl J, Kwak J (2006) On the definition and measurement of human scent: comments on Curran et al. J Chem Ecol 32:1613–1616. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-006-9095-y
Prokop-Prigge KA, Greene K, Varallo L, Wysocki CJ, Preti G (2016) The effect of ethnicity on human axillary odorant production. J Chem Ecol 42:33–39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-015-0657-8
Quignon P, Giraud M, Rimbault M, Lavigne P, Tacher S, Morin E, Retout E, Valin A-S, Lindblad-Toh K, Nicolas J, Galibert F (2005) The dog and rat olfactory receptor repertoires. Genome Biol 6:R83. https://doi.org/10.1186/gb-2005-6-10-r83
Regenbogen C, Axelsson J, Lasselin J, Porada DK, Sundelin T, Peter MG, Lekander M, Lundström JN, Olsson MJ (2017) Behavioral and neural correlates to multisensory detection of sick humans. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 114:6400–6405. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1617357114
Roberts SC, Gosling LM, Spector TD, Miller P, Penn DJ, Petrie M (2005) Body odor similarity in noncohabiting twins. Chem Senses 30:651–656
Roberts SA, Simpson DM, Armstrong SD, Davidson AJ, Robertson DH, McLean L, Beynon RJ, Hurst JL (2010) Darcin: a male pheromone that stimulates female memory and sexual attraction to an individual male’s odour. BMC Biol 8:75. https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7007-8-75
Santos DV, Reiter ER, DiNardo LJ, Costanzo RM (2004) Hazardous events associated with impaired olfactory function. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 130:317–319
Savic I, Berglund H, Gulyas B, Roland P (2001) Smelling of odorous sex hormone-like compounds causes sex-differentiated hypothalamic activations in humans. Neuron 31:661–668. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0896-6273(01)00390-7
Saxton TK, Lyndon A, Little AC, Roberts SC (2008) Evidence that androstadienone, a putative human chemosignal, modulates women’s attributions of men’s attractiveness. Horm Behav 54:597–601. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2008.06.001
Schaal B, Porter RH (1991) “Microsmatic humans” revisited: the generation and perception of chemical signals. Adv Study Behav 20:135–199
Schaal B, Soussignan R, Marlier L, Kontar F, Karima IS, Tremblay RE (1997) Variability and invariants in early odour preferences: comparative data from children belonging to three cultures. Chem Senses 22:212
Schaal B, Coureaud G, Langlois D, Ginies C, Semon E, Perrier G (2003) Chemical and behavioural characterization of the rabbit mammary pheromone. Nature 424:68–72
Schleidt M, Hold B, Attili G (1981) A cross-cultural study on the attitude towards personal odors. J Chem Ecol 7:19–31
Schleidt M, Neumann P, Morishita H (1988) Pleasure and disgust: memories and associations of pleasant and unpleasant odours in Germany and Japan. Chem Senses 13:279–293. https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/13.2.279
Singh D, Bronstad PM (2001) Female body odour is a potential cue to ovulation. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 268:797–801. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2001.1589
Starkenmann C, Niclass Y, Troccaz M, Clark AJ (2005) Identification of the precursor of (S)-3-methyl-3-sulfanylhexan-1-ol, the sulfury malodour of human axilla sweat. Chem Biodivers 2:705–716. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbdv.200590048
Stevenson RJ (2010) An initial evaluation of the functions of human olfaction. Chem Senses 35:3–20. https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjp083
Stoddart DM (1990) The scented ape: the biology and culture of human odour. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Wackermannová M, Pinc L, Jebavý L (2016) Olfactory sensitivity in mammalian species. Physiol Res 65:369–390
Wedekind C, Seebeck T, Bettens F, Paepke AJ (1995) MHC-dependent mate preferences in humans. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 260:245–249. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1995.0087
Wedekind C, Escher S, Van de Waal M, Frei E (2007) The major histocompatibility complex and perfumers’ descriptions of human body odors. Evol Psychol 5:330–343
Wilke K, Martin A, Terstegen L, Biel SS (2007) A short history of sweat gland biology. Int J Cosmet Sci 29:169–179
Wyatt TD (2015) The search for human pheromones: the lost decades and the necessity of returning to first principles. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 282:20142994. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.2994
Wysocki CJ, Pierce JD, Gilbert AN (1991) Geographic, cross-cultural, and individual variation in human olfaction. In: Getchell TV, Doty RL, Bartoshuk LM, Snow JB (eds) Smell and taste in health and disease. Raven Press, New York, pp 287–314
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Ferdenzi, C. (2019). Cross-Cultural Approaches to Better Understand Chemical Communication in Humans. In: Buesching, C. (eds) Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17616-7_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17616-7_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-17615-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-17616-7
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)