Biology
BIOLOGY OF PERFUME C
ross-culturally, fragrances are used to modulate body odor, but the psychology of fragrance choice has been largely overlooked. The prevalent view is that fragrances mask an individual’s body odor and improve its pleasantness. Fragrances thus appear to interact with body odor, creating an individually-specific odor mixture. The odor mixture of an individual’s body odor and their preferred perfume was perceived as more pleasant than a blend of the same body odor with a randomly-allocated perfume, even when there was no difference in pleasantness between the perfumes. Fragrance use extends beyond simple masking effects and that people choose perfumes that interact well with their own odor. This explains the highly individual nature of perfume choice.
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