People prefer the same scents regardless of their cultural origins. Article about it published In Current Biology.
“We wanted to find out if people all over the world have the same sense of smell and like and like the same smells, or if these things are culturally determined,” says Artin Arshamian of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute. “It has traditionally been considered a cultural phenomenon, but we can show it had nothing to do with it.”
The study showed that only the molecular structure of a substance determines whether the body finds the odor pleasant. The scientists selected nine groups of people from different traditional peoples: four from hunter-gatherers and five from agricultural tribes. In total, 235 people from different regions participated in the study, some of the tribes studied had almost no contact with Western products.
Regardless of tribal origin, people recognized the most pleasant smell of vanillin and ethyl butyrate, which smells like fruit. Few of the participants liked the smell of isovaleric acid, which is found in cheese, soy milk, and the sweat of human feet.
As a result, the researchers concluded that odor perception is 41 percent dependent on the molecular structure of the substance and 54 percent dependent on personal preferences. Ethnicity does not play an important role.
Source: Gazeta
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