Aromachologists nose out the secret powers of smell

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Nov 10, 1997 | by Leslie Alan Horvitz

The future of the fragrance may belong to 'smart scents,' aromas created to manipulate behavior that will make us more efficient at work, more relaxed at home -- and more apt to spend money.

The sense of smell probably is the least respected, least examined and least understood of the five senses. It's also the one sense that more Americans -- 55 percent in a 1995 survey -- say they could do without.

"In the use of the olfactory apparatus, Americans are culturally underdeveloped," according to anthropologist E.T. Hall. "The extensive use of deodorants and the suppression of odor in public places results in a land of olfactory blandness and sameness."

Of all the senses, none is more elemental than smell. Unlike sight or sound, odors cannot be mediated by thought. Fingers of the olfactory bulb at the top of the nose dip directly into the limbic system, the most primitive part of the brain and the repository of emotions, cognition and sexual response. Odors can evoke feelings of happiness, hunger, disgust and nostalgia with great intensity. Some scents seem capable of reducing weight; others can alleviate migraine headaches.

Scent researchers call their science "aromachology," a term whose origin seems to be in some dispute--both the Olfactory Research Fund, a New York-based nonprofit institution, and the Aveda Corp., a manufacturer of flower and plant essences, claim to have coined it. Whatever it's etymology, aromachology is different from aromatherapy, which involves the use of essential oils and herbs to treat various mental and physical disorders.

Though research in smell has intensified, aromachology is still in its infancy Scientists have focused on the effect of food smells on mood and behavior. The scent of an orange can act as an antidepressant. That of green apples and cucumbers alleviate feelings of claustrophobia.

"Maybe [claustrophobics] responded because [green apples and cucumbers] are outdoor smells," speculates Alan Hirsch, director of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, which conducted the experiment. Agoraphobics profit from the scent of barbecue smoke, which causes them to perceive a space as smaller than it actually is.

Pleasant odors cause people to linger, a boon for museums and stores. In a recent study, visitors exposed to incense in a gallery said they gained more from the exhibit than those who saw it sans odor. Some entertainment companies are studying how to deliver scents in tandem with films and videocassettes. Others hope to digitalize odors and send them over the Internet.

"When people are working at home and they're feeling tired or lonely, they can apply a fragrance and feel better," says Annette Green, president of the Fragrance Foundation in New York. "People are looking for alternatives to taking medication. This is an outgrowth of the physical-fitness revolution."

Pleasant odors have been shown to improve productivity. Peppermint piped into the workplace may increase alertness, performance and attitude, for example. In one test, subjects exposed to either peppermint or lily of the valley performed 20 percent more accurately than those who breathed unscented air.

Peppermint also reduces anxiety. A study at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital showed a sharp reduction in the anxiety of patients undergoing magnetic resonance imaging tests when exposed to peppermint and vanilla scents.

"One cannot assume that any positive or negative odor will necessarily influence mood without taking other factors into account," cautions Howard Erlichman, professor of psychology at Queens College. "Although in some of our studies, pleasant odors did seem to influence behavior, more often than not it was the unpleasant odors that seemed to have stronger effect."

Context may play a part: A floral scent may not have as pronounced an effect when it comes from a bottle . And different cultures have different ideas of pleasant. The Dassanetch tribe of Ethiopia considers the smell of cow manure an aphrodisiac. The only universally pleasant smell is cola, which may explain why Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola are global titans.

At any rate, upscale stores are willing to pay as much as $50,000 to fragrance experts to develop scents to influence their clientele. Makers of cleaning products long have used citrus aromas to evoke freshness and cleanliness, although that may be changing. "Lemon has a very cheap connotation," says Gabriella Zuckerman, a fragrance consultant. "This is because so many of the rug sprays, room deodorizers and bathroom deodorizers used an inexpensive version of lemon in the past."

Manufacturers may need to develop more sophisticated scents. Nike has commissioned the Smell and Taste Foundation to assess reactions to sneakers in florally scented rooms. Close to 85 percent of the subjects found the shoes more appealing when examining them in scented air. "They were more willing to buy them and willing to pay more money for them than those in a room with only filtered air," says Hirsch, adding that women were more receptive subjects than men.