Beyond the West: Chemosignaling of Emotions Transcends Ethno-Cultural Boundaries

The human sense of smell has long been underestimated, from the ancient Greeks, to Sigmund Freud, and beyond (Le Gu érer, 2002). Currently, pseudoscientific ideas about poor human olfaction are being replaced by empirical studies showing excellent human smell skills (McGann, 2017). Indeed, one capacity humans share with super smeller species is social communication (Stevenson, 2010): Human body odor can convey a person’s identity (Kuhn and Natsch, 2008), gender (Penn et al. 2007), age (e.g., Haze et al., 2001), sickness (Olsson et al.
Source: Psychoneuroendocrinology - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Source Type: research