Rikki Marie M.

Gardoce Cognitive Psychology

The Hidden Power of Scent

I often see k9 dogs walking around the mall. They are known to have a very good sense of
olfaction so they can able to identify potential threats to their environment. In many cases, these
animals saved plenty of lives. It really amazed me how these dogs use their sense to contribute to
the society.

Upon reading the article, it changed my mindset about the significance of the sense of
smell. Honestly, I am one of the people who underestimate the power of our olfactory sense. It
opened my mind of how it works without us noticing it. One of the points that I have realized is
that we use our sense of smell when distinguishing people whom to like and dislike. Rekindling
moments when I was a kid, one my classmates was bullied because of her bad odor that created
bad impressions of her. Based on my personal observation, individuals who are with pleasant
personality as well as pleasant smell are more likely to make more friends.

Based on my personal experience, people who do possess pleasant smell are more attractive
than people who don’t. When I was in high school, I included good odor as one of my qualifications
when liking a man. It gives me a “turn on” feeling whenever I passed by or get closed with them
and smelled them even when they do not put perfume. Somehow, I can say that I have a strong
olfactory sense because I remember how I could smell my classmate’s natural odor and it hurt my
nose especially after they played outside and somehow hindered establishing a close relationship
with those people. In addition, men who are not even physically handsome are still appealing to
most girls because of their good body odor which I found true to some my friends whenever I ask
them some features of their boyfriends that make them more in love, romantically speaking.

On the other hand, normally along the streets, whenever I see beggars, one reason why I
stay away from them is because of the foul odor. I often associate their odor to being mentally
disturbed that they might do something wrong to me and to other people. Even in environment, I
frequently associate a smelly place to unsafe and uncleanliness so I tend to distance myself from
Rikki Marie M. Gardoce Cognitive Psychology
ABPSY-II PY2-01 Prof. Grace Daliva
Reflection Paper September 10, 2019

it. I learned from a video that some beggars have schizophrenia that’s why I assumed that they
neglect self-care because of that mental illness. Similarly, it mentioned in the article that
schizophrenic people have diminished social drive and that is related to ability to identify odor.
From that I suspect that they do not realize their foul odor because of problems of smell. Indeed,
different odors really affect my emotions, feelings and how I deal towards a person or an
environment. The article stated that brain’s olfactory bulb has close connections with the limbic
system which is known as our emotional brain which is also connected to memory. Personally, I
believe that smell is closely tied to emotions because I often experience nostalgic moments every
time I smell something that seems to be familiar to me. It suddenly changes my emotions and
memories begin to flashback in my mind. Indeed, odor can increase our memory because of its
connection to the limbic system.

I learned from the article that body odor has the ability to signal mood and condition. I
found that fact to be true because I remember our past discussion in Physiological Psychology that
if a person is under a stressful situation, he is more likely to have a foul odor in the armpit. It
happened to me a lot of times whether it is a happy stress or a distress. I think people who are
public speakers and whose job is related to talking to a massive group of people are more common
to experiencing that phenomenon. In some way it widened my understanding because this fact
inhibits me to be judgmental to others. But this is far different from people who display a foul odor
nearly everyday. I think I could distinguish what needs to be understood in times of that situation.
In the article, it was also mentioned that odor is different when people are happy and when they
are afraid. I think humans do have little ability to detect that or it is rarely noticed, but animals
have more sensitive olfactory especially dogs that’s why I assumed that it can be because of the
odor of the person that domesticated dogs can sense if they are sad or happy. Dogs are known to
be therapeutic to some individuals who are stressed or depressed. They could really help those
people, actually my sister told me that it was because of her dogs that she finally overcame her
sadness due to the loss of her close uncle in law. Consequently, dogs not only save us from
potential threat but also help us cope to whatever depressing events we may experience.
Rikki Marie M. Gardoce Cognitive Psychology
ABPSY-II PY2-01 Prof. Grace Daliva
Reflection Paper September 10, 2019

Certainly, a scent of a friend helps us determine their familiarity. The more we smell their
scent, the more it becomes familiar to us, that’s why even if they are not with us, but if we smell
their scent or somehow related to them, we think of them suddenly. And even we do not see them,
when we smell them, we know that it is them. There are times that my friends try to cover my eyes
and make me guess if who they are but because I can’t see them, I try to use my hands to touch
their skin and if I can’t still recognize them, I use my olfactory by smelling their hands which are
close my nose so I can identify them. Sometimes, when their scent is too strong, even when they
are just approaching me, I could sense their presence already. Odors can really influence our social
preferences, because we use smell to decide liking a person or not for it could make us feel
comfortable or not when we are with them.

On the other hand, unfamiliar smell helps us identify a stranger from a friend because a
particular area of the brain could not identify it so it signals the brain that the smell comes from an
unknown individual. I have watched scenes from different movies in which one of the things that
wife does when she suspects that her husband is cheating on her is by smelling their used clothes.
When they smelled a scent that is something unfamiliar which is usually a feminine fragrance, it
increased their belief that her husband is doing something wrong.

Lastly, I learned from the article that each individual has unique odor which can be found
in the armpit, genital and nipple. This new fact caught my interest and makes me want to research
more about it on our trimestral break so I could gain more insights.

Indeed, smell is often seen as less important compared to other senses but it shows that it
is as important as other senses such as visual and auditory. We use our olfactory sense in everyday
life even when we are not consciously aware of it. I learned that it is a big loss if our sense of smell
becomes impaired because this is essential in sensing potential threat. I remember a Korean drama
that showed a lady whose life was put in danger due to her inability to sense the poison as she
suffered from impairment of her olfactory sense. It really shows that sense of smell can be life
saving so I should start giving it importance.