Investigating the human chemical communication of positive emotions using a virtual reality-based mood induction

• Published in: Physiology & behavior 2023-05, Vol.264, p.114147-114147, Article 114147
• Main Authors: Richard Ortegón, Stéphane, Carlos, Olivia, Robert-Hazotte, Aline, Lelgouarch, Anne, Desoche, Clément, Kawabata Duncan, Keith, Tagai, Keiko, Fournel, Arnaud, Bensafi, Moustafa, Race, Bénédicte, Ferdenzi, Camille
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Affect - physiology; Body Odor; Chemical communication; Emotional contagion; Emotions - physiology; Female; Human health and pathology; Humans; Life Sciences; Male; Neurons and Cognition; Nonverbal Communication - psychology; Perfume; Positive emotions; Psychology and behavior; Tissues and Organs; Virtual Reality; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0031-9384; 1873-507X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2023.114147

•Humans communicate their emotions to others through body odors.•Previous studies show that positive emotions can be chemically communicated this way.•We increased efficacy of positive emotion induction using virtual reality (VR).•But evidence of chemical communication of emotion using VR were limited.•Chemical communication of emotion is subtle and difficult to detect in the laboratory. Humans can communicate their emotions to others via volatile emissions from their bodies. Although there is now solid evidence for human chemical communication of fear, stress and anxiety, investigations of positive emotions remain scarce. In a recent study, we found that women's heart rate and performance in creativity tasks were modulated by body odors of men sampled while they were in a positive vs. neutral mood. However, inducing positive emotions in laboratory settings remains challenging. Therefore, an important step to further investigate the human chemical communication of positive emotions is to develop new methods to induce positive moods. Here, we present a new mood induction procedure (MIP) based on virtual reality (VR), that we assumed to be more powerful than videos (used in our previous study) to induce positive emotions. We hypothesized that, consequently, given the more intense emotions created, this VR-based MIP would induce larger differences between the receivers’ responses to the positive body odor versus a neutral control body odor, than the Video-based MIP. The results confirmed the higher efficacy of VR to induce positive emotions compared with videos. More specifically, VR had more repeatable effects between individuals. Although positive body odors had similar effects to those found in the previous video study, especially faster problem solving, these effects did not reach statistical significance. These outcomes are discussed as a function of the specificities of VR and of other methodological parameters, that may have prevented the observation of such subtle effects and that should be understood more in-depth for future studies on human chemical communication.