Amazing Scent Facts

Girl pouring perfume into an alabaster - Museo Nacional Romano, Roma

Of all our five senses, the sense of smell is often set aside and remained underutilized and underrated. In a 2011 survey, 53% of millenials said they would give up their sense of smell before they give up their smartphones or iPads. Nietzsche may have other idea though, in saying that "My genius is in my nostrils." But for us scent lovers, it is so easy to be under a spell whenever we smell our favorite scent.

Here are my favorite facts about scent that I learned during this pandemic lockdown:

1. Before we are born, the sense of smell is the first of the senses to develop.
2. Smell registers in our brains first before sight, sound or touch.
3. Scent is the strongest sense linked to memory and emotion.
4. We are 100 times more likely to remember what we smell versus what we see, hear or touch.
5. 75% of our emotions generated everyday are due to what we smell.
6. We instinctively choose a scent to work in tandem with our individual body odor and pheromones.
7. The average human being is able to recognize and remember about 10,000 different scents. 
8. Recent studies show that it's also possible that humans can distinguish up to one trillion scents!
9. Human diseases have odors. Flu itself has a distinct odor. That's why some dogs are now trained to identify human illnesses through scents including COVID-19.
10. Scent can play a healing role for people suffering from neurological disorders such as dementia or Alzheimer's disease.
11. People are more creative in problem-solving when exposed to a pleasant scent compared to an unpleasant one.
12. The scent of coffee alone might help people perform analytical tasks better, suggesting a placebo-like effect of caffeine.
13. 80% of what we taste is what we smell.
14. Wine tasting (and smelling) works the brain harder than a math problem.

Sources:

https://www.globalwellnesssummit.com/2019-global-wellness-trends/medi-scent-fragrance-makeover/

https://us.moodmedia.com/scent/scent-research/

https://gulfnews.com/world/europe/the-plan-for-dogs-to-hunt-out-the-coronavirus-1.1587060976216

https://historia.nationalgeographic.com.es/a/perfumes-roma-aderezo-mas-preciado_12841/1