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Olfaction and Emotion

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Science of Olfaction

Abstract

The idea that olfaction and emotion are closely linked has become commonplace in both popular and scientific discussions of the sense of smell. Odors are said to influence mood, evoke powerful experiences of pleasure or displeasure, produce alertness or relaxation, and evoke long-forgotten emotional memories. These effects are often said to reflect the dependence of olfaction on parts of the brain involved in emotional experience. Some writers have even gone as far as dubbing olfaction “our most emotional sense” (Lieff and Alper, 1988). How much of this is fact and how much fancy? Unfortunately, assertions about olfaction and emotion are often made without sufficient justification from the scientific literature, in part because little relevant research has existed until quite recently. Yet, as research on olfaction and emotion grows, it is important to critically examine ideas that have sometimes been taken as self-evident. In this chapter we seek to clarify the various ways in which the sense of smell could be construed as “emotional” by discussing eight “propositions” connecting olfaction to affect. We also explore the possibility that regardless of whether claims for some unique relationship between olfaction and emotion can be substantiated at present, odors may have a role to play in the study of affective reactions; hence a second aim of this chapter is to suggest ways in which olfaction may be profitably used in the study of affective experience.

“Our most elusive sense, smell reaches more directly into memory and emotions than other senses” (Gibbons, 1986, p. 337). “Functionally, smell may be to emotion what sight or hearing is to cognition” (Engen, 1982, p. 3).

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Authors
  1. Howard Ehrlichman
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  2. Linda Bastone
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, The Mount Sinai Medical Center, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1230, New York, New York, 10029, USA

    Michael J. Serby MD

  2. Department of Neurology, New York University Medical Center, New York, New York, 10016, USA

    Karen L. Chobor MS

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Ehrlichman, H., Bastone, L. (1992). Olfaction and Emotion. In: Serby, M.J., Chobor, K.L. (eds) Science of Olfaction. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2836-3_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2836-3_15

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