Affected by Smells? Environmental Chemical Responsivity Predicts Odor Perception

Strong negative reactions, physical symptoms, and behavioral disruptions due to environmental odors are common in the adult population. We investigated relationships among such environmental chemosensory responsivity (CR), personality traits, affective states, and odor perception. Study 1 showed tha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemical senses 2011-09, Vol.36 (7), p.641-648
Main Authors: Cornell Kärnekull, Stina, Jönsson, Fredrik U, Larsson, Maria, Olofsson, Jonas K
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
affect
Biological and medical sciences
chemical sensitivity scale
correlation
Environment. Living conditions
Environmental Pollutants - analysis
Environmental Pollutants - chemistry
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
Neurotic Disorders - physiopathology
neuroticism
Odorants - analysis
odors
olfaction
Olfaction. Taste
people
Perception
Personality
Predictive Value of Tests
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psykologi
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
regression analysis
SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
Sensory Thresholds - physiology
Smell - physiology
SOCIAL SCIENCES
Socialvetenskap
Surveys and Questionnaires
young adults
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Summary:Strong negative reactions, physical symptoms, and behavioral disruptions due to environmental odors are common in the adult population. We investigated relationships among such environmental chemosensory responsivity (CR), personality traits, affective states, and odor perception. Study 1 showed that CR and neuroticism were positively correlated in a sample of young adults (n = 101), suggesting that persons high in neuroticism respond more negatively to environmental odors. Study 2 explored the relationships among CR, noise responsivity (NR), neuroticism, and odor perception (i.e., pleasantness and intensity) in a subset of participants (n = 40). High CR was associated with high NR. Regression analyses indicated that high CR predicted higher odor intensity ratings and low olfactory threshold (high sensitivity) predicted lower pleasantness ratings. However, neuroticism was not directly associated with odor ratings or thresholds. Overall, the results suggest that CR and odor thresholds predict perceptual ratings of odors and that high CR is associated with nonchemosensory affective traits.
ISSN:0379-864X
1464-3553
1464-3553
DOI:10.1093/chemse/bjr028