1 1 Symposium Chemosensory Receptors Satellite DEVELOPMENT ...

497 Poster Developmental, Neurogenesis, and ConsumerResearchBEAUTY IS IN THE “NOSE” OF THE BEHOLDER—UNCONSCIOUS SMELLS INFLUENCE PERCEIVEDLIKABILITYLi W. 1 , Moallem I. 1 , Paller K.A. 1 , Gottfried J. 1 1 NorthwesternUniversity, Chicago, ILThe direct projections between the olfactory bulb and the limbicsystem suggest that olfactory input may induce emotion withoutneocortical involvement, and perhaps independently of consciousawareness of smell. We used sub-threshold concentrations of pleasant(citric acid), unpleasant (valeric acid) and neutral (anisole) odorants totest whether the emotional content of smells could be accessedsubliminally so as to influence affective judgments. In each subject,detection thresholds were determined for each odorant by requiring fiveconsecutive hits in a two-alternative forced-choice ascending staircaseprocedure (using 1/3 serial dilutions). We then presented odorants 3dilution steps below threshold for presence/absence judgments. In eachof 80 trials, the subject sniffed from a bottle containing one of theodorants or mineral oil alone. After sniffing the subject saw a photo of aneutral face (80 different faces) and rated how much they liked thatperson. Performance on the odor-detection task was at chance level in22 out of 39 subjects. These subjects thus demonstrated lack ofconscious awareness of odors. Also, they showed a shift in likabilityjudgments towards the valence of the preceding odor; faces preceded byunpleasant odor were rated less likable than faces following pleasant orneutral odors. These data provide clear evidence that emotionalproperties of a subliminal odor can be processed so as to influence one´semotional reaction to another person. Furthermore, these findings implythat unconscious smells can potentially influence everyday behavior.Funding sources: Northwestern Univ.; NSF.499 Poster Developmental, Neurogenesis, and ConsumerResearchCOGNITIONS INFLUENCE COLOR-ODORCORRESPONDENCESAbreu D. 1 , Mattern-Mcclory R. 1 , McGarry A. 1 , Zellner D. 11 Psychology, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJIt has been demonstrated previously that certain colors are selected ascorresponding to certain odors (e.g., Gilbert, Martin, & Kemp, 1996).We further investigate this effect using complex scents (the unisexfragrances CKOne and CKbe). In addition, we examine the influence oftelling subjects that the scents are male or female fragrances. Subjects(n = 68) smelled both CKOne and CKbe from identical sniff-bottles.Half of the subjects were told that the scents were female fragrances andthe other half were told that they were male. They were asked to assignfive “appropriateness” points to the following 11 colors: red, orange,yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, white, grey, and black. For thetwo scents, both when subjects were told that they were male and whenthey were told that they were female fragrances, the points were notuniformly distributed among the 11 colors. Some colors were chosenmore frequently than were others [Friedman chi-square (10) = 21.25 to31.07, p < 0.02 in all cases]. In addition, the pattern of color selectiondepended on whether subjects were told that it was a male or femalescent [chi-square (10) = 52.31, p < 0.01 for CKOne and chi-square(10)= 44.75, p < 0.01 for CKbe]. Subjects who were told that the CKOnewas a female scent predominately chose pink whereas those who weretold that it was a male scent chose blue. Subjects who were told thatCKbe was a female scent predominately chose yellow whereas subjectsshow were told that it was a male scent chose blue. While the actualodor of a scent plays some role in odor-color correspondences, how asubject thinks of the odor may play an even more important role.498 Poster Developmental, Neurogenesis, and ConsumerResearchEFFECTS OF PLEASANT AND UNPLEASANT ODORS ONEXERCISE PERFORMANCETimothy A.A. 1 , Hornung D.E. 1 1 St. Lawrence University, Canton, NYThis study evaluated the effect of the smell of lavender (pleasant),butyric acid (unpleasant), and octane (unpleasant) on the exerciseperformance of female college students. During a test session, subjectswere instructed to peddle as fast as they could for 20 minutes on astationary bike. During a session, subjects were exposed to the smell oflavender, octane, butyric acid or to an odorless control. The subject´sheart rate, speed, and distance traveled were recorded every 2 minutes.Each experimental condition (lavender, octane, butyric acid andodorless control) was repeated 3 times for a total of 12 trials per subject.As expected, exposure to lavender improved exercise performancecompared to the performance seen with the water control. Althoughexposure to unpleasant smell of octane also increased performance, thesmell of butyric acid did not alter performance. The increase inperformance seen with lavender was accompanied by a decreased heartrate for at least part of the exercise period whereas the increasedperformance seen with octane as accompanied by an increase in heartrate. Perhaps pleasant odors like lavender facilitate entering the“zone”—a relaxed state in which actions are more reflexive andattention is focused in a good way on the task at hand. On the otherhand the increased performance seen with unpleasant odors like octanemay be related more to their irritating psychological properties.500 Poster Developmental, Neurogenesis, and ConsumerResearchMEASURING ODOR ATTITUDES IN AN IMPLICIT WAYBulsing P. 1 , Smeets M. 1 , Van Den Hout M. 1 1 University of Utrecht,Utrecht, NetherlandsIntroduction: Beliefs and attitudes about odors and exposure effectscan influence odor perception in an implicit way. So far, researchershave tried to map these odor attitudes by using self-reportmeasurements, and thus by asking people to think explicitly about theirattitudes. Objective: To measure odor attitudes in an implicit way, wedeveloped an odor version of the Implicit Association Test (IAT;Greenwald et al., 1998) Validation of this odor-IAT will be discussed.Methods: Three experiments were conducted to test the odor-IAT,which is a computerized reaction time task, during which participantshave to associate words from the concept “odor” with positive andnegative words, by pressing the corresponding keys on a computerkeyboard. Participants, not selected on specific odor attitudes(Experiment 1 and Replication Experiment 2) and participants whofrequently use aromatherapy products (Experiment 3) completed thetest. They were all psychology students. Implicit odor attitudes wereinferred from examining response latencies and error rates. Results: Ingeneral, lower response latencies and error rates were observed duringphases of the test where “odor” had to be associated with positivewords, reflecting an overall positive attitude towards odors inExperiment 1 and 2. This odor attitude was even more positive withinan aromatherapy group in Experiment 3 compared to participants whoreported they never use aromatherapy products. The odor-IAT wascapable of making distinctions between various implicit odor attitudes.Participants with a negative attitude towards odors are currently beingtested. Funded by NWO 452-03-334.125