Does Scent Affect Mood?

Greetings to all my fellow steemians. I've finally found another worthy topic to write about.

Does what we smell affect our mood? The simple answer is yes. Odors do affect peoples mood, work performance and behavior in a variety of ways but it isn't because odors work on us like a drug, instead we work on them through our experiences with them.

While sniffing a specific scent can trigger particular states of mind, it's not really programmed. Scents trigger moods because of associative learning—the way our brains entwine things due to past encounters. Before the brain can connect a scent to a specific temperament, it first needs to connect that smell with an occasion or experience. The olfactory bulbs, the part of the brain responsible for receiving information about odors, are connected to territories of the cerebrum that deals with feelings and associative learning.

A growing body of literature demonstrates that positive temperament is connected to an expansion in profitability, execution and the inclination to help other people, while adverse state of mind lessens pro-social conduct. Strikingly, pro-social conduct and profitability are likewise improved in the presence of charming encompassing smells. For instance, Individuals who work under pleasant smelling air freshener likewise detailed higher self-viability, set higher objectives and will probably utilize proficient work systems than members who worked in a no-scent condition. Wonderful surrounding scents have additionally been found to upgrade carefulness amid a tedious task and enhance execution on word completion tests. Then again, malodorous scent diminished members subjective judgments and brought down their resilience for dissatisfaction. Participants in these studies also reported concordant mood changes. In this manner, the watched behavioral reactions are because of the impact that the surrounding scents has on peoples temperament.

Also, from the works of Dr. Susan Knasko, who has been studying the effects of scent on mood and performance at Monnell Chemical Senses Institute in Philadelphia, She cites a study conducted at Monnell in which half the study group was placed in a room and a pleasant smell was being introduced. The other half, placed in another room and an unpleasant smell was introduced. People exposed to a pleasant smell ­reported greater feelings of health, and more agile than the other group.

You can change your mood by changing what you smell.

The sense of smell is the strongest sense.

Smell has a powerful effect on behavior. The smell of fresh bun increases your craving to have it. On the other hand smell of burnt bun can make you not to want it.

Smell can influence 75% of your decisions without you being aware of it.

Smell can also ignite memories and certain smells can remind you of places, people, food or anything else that your brain may have associated with it.