Do people emit happiness through smell?

How do we express enthusiastic emotions? Happiness is usually hidden in the broad smile we see, the cackling laughter we hear, the strong hug we feel. What about our sense of smell? New research suggests that we also read someone's positive vibes through scent. A team of European researchers has determined that happiness can produce chemicals released through sweat. These sweat signals are sniffed by those around us. By inhaling someone else's optimistic emotions, we become happier ourselves. Human sweat, produced when a person is happy, induces a state similar to happiness in someone who inhales its odor , says co-author Gun Semin, a professor in the Department of Psychology at Koc University in Istanbul. He adds that previous observations have shown that negative emotions, such as fear or disgust, can be transmitted through the smell of sweat. Course of the experience Researchers led by Semin collected sweat samples from 12 young men who had previously watched films designed to evoke various emotions, including happiness and fear. All the men were healthy. During the experiment, they were prohibited from smoking, drinking alcohol, or eating foods with strong odors. They were also prohibited from being sexually active. As a counterbalance, 36 healthy young women were recruited to sniff the sweat samples. Their reactions were monitored. Women were chosen for the test because they typically have a better sense of smell than men and are also more sensitive to emotional stimuli. The women's facial expressions were analyzed. A so-called " behavioral synchronization " occurred between the emotional state of the sweating person and the reaction of the person smelling the sweat. This means that the facial muscles responsible for happiness were activated on the faces of the women who inhaled the "happy sweat." Experts' opinions Pamela Dalton, an olfactory specialist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, argues that the study is more important than studies confirming the ability to transmit and recognize negative emotions. Andreas Keller, of The Rockefeller University in New York, opposed Dalton, arguing that the published results are intuitive. Hearing happy people and seeing happy people makes us happier. Therefore, the fact that smelling them also makes us happier is probably no surprise . Keller believes the next step is to discover the nature of the chemicals in "scared sweat" and "happy sweat."