The role of fragrance and self-esteem in perception of body odors and impressions of others.

Human sweat odor serves as social communication signal for a person's traits and emotional states. This study explored whether body odors can also communicate information about one's self-esteem, and the role of applied fragrance in this relationship. Female participants were asked to rate self-esteem and attractiveness of different male contestants of a dating show, while being exposed to male participant's body odors differing in self-esteem. High self-esteem sweat was rated more pleasant and less intense than low self-esteem sweat. However, there was no difference in perceived self-esteem and attractiveness of male contestants in videos, hence explicit differences in body odor did not transfer to judgments of related person characteristics. When the body odor was fragranced using a fragranced body spray, male contestants were rated as having higher self-esteem and being more attractive. The finding that body odors from male participants differing in self-esteem are rated differently and can be discriminated suggests self-esteem has distinct perceivable olfactory features, but the remaining findings imply that only fragrance affect the psychological impression someone makes. These findings are discussed in the context of the role of body odor and fragrance in human perception and social communication.
Competing Interests: The authors have read the journal’s policy and have the following competing interests: Unilever provided financial support for supplies and participant remuneration and material support by supplying fragranced (test product) body sprays in cans free of labels. IG and MS are employees of Unilever. This does not alter the adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. A Unilever marketed product was used as body spray in the fragranced condition, but without a label or further identification. There are no patents, products in development, or other marketed products associated with this research to declare.