They asked 60 people to wear t-shirts for 3 nights and then collected them. People actually volunteered to smell the shirts and guess how the people who wore them, called the donors, rated on the major personality traits.
Believe it or not, by smelling the stinky t-shirts, the volunteers correctly predicted the donors’ scores on both extroversion and neuroticism tests.
Ever have the experience where someone just gave you “the creeps”? Well, pay attention.
The sense of smell is the only sense that is wired directly into the brain and doesn’t go through any relay stations. This is because ancient man needed to smell fire from a distance in order to have time to get away. They also needed to detect when food was rotten.
When something “stinks”, pay attention to your instincts and get away. Chances are, the person is “rotten”, if you know what I mean.
Claudia
Join me on Facebook at Dr. Claudia McCulloch
At drclaudia.net, click on the "Ask Me" button and send me a question.