- Psychologists claim bad body odour is associated with vulnerability
- They claim that this can trigger feelings of concern and pity in other people
- As a result, people are more likely to help someone who smells bad
By
Victoria Woollaston
10:58 EST, 23 December 2013
|
11:00 EST, 23 December 2013
Sharing a desk or spending time with someone who smells is usually best avoided, yet it could make you more compassionate.
Research has found that bad body odour is commonly associated with vulnerability, which triggers feelings of concern in others.
This means people tend to increase their level of co-operation when dealing with someone who smells bad because they feel sorry for them.Â
Psychologists from Belgium found that bad body odour is commonly associated with vulnerability, which triggers feelings of concern. This, in turn, leads other people to pity the person with the odour and treat them more favourably than others
DOES SWEAT MAKE WOMEN SMELL INCOMPETENT?
The smell of stressed women makes them come across as incompetent and untrustworthy to others, according to a new study.
Sweat expert Dr Susan Biehle-Hulette has proved that the smell of stress sweat – which is a different scent to sweat released during exercise or while in a hot place – can change others’ perceptions of the person under pressure.
In comparison to internal or external heat sweat, odour given off when stressed women sweat is perceived by men and other women as unpleasant.
This leads them to judge the sweaty woman as lacking confidence and competence, as well as being untrustworthy.
Lead author Jeroen Camps and colleagues, from the university KU Leuven in Belgium, said: ‘Scents are omnipresent in our daily world and they are of great importance as represented by the use of perfumes or fragrances in the work environment.’
‘Even though it has been argued that bad scents invoke negative judgments, we argued and demonstrated that a bad body odour elicits feelings of pity in others and increases prosocial behaviour.’
This can include underarm sweat, smelly feet, bad breath or other foul-smelling odours.
The research, published online in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, involved several experiments.
In the first experiment, 36 participants were randomly placed into two groups.
Half were asked to sniff a bad smelling T-shirt that had been dowsed in human sweat, beer and sprayed with foul smells. The other half smelt a more neutral-smelling T-shirt.
All the T-shirts were of the same shape and colour and all participants were told to imagine the item belonged to someone they worked with.
During tests (library pictured shown), participants were asked how they felt about people who had body odour, and others who didn’t. In tasks, people were more likely to show support towards bad smelling participants. They were also more likely to share prizes with them
Researchers then measured how participants felt about the other person, using ratings from one – totally disagree, to five – totally agree.
Pity was measured through two statements: ‘I feel sorry for the other person’ and ‘I find the other pathetic’ and the participants in the odour condition felt significantly more pity than those in the neutral condition.
A second experiment involved 62 participants. They were first asked to complete a maze alone before being seated next to someone wearing either a neutral or bad smelling T-shirt and asked to complete another maze.
Finally, participants moved to a third room and were asked to divide 11 credits giving a chance to win film tickets between themselves and the other person.
People who had sat next to an unpleasant smelling person donated more credits to him or her on average than people who sat next to someone without bad body odour.
The authors said this ‘showed that there are situations in which a person’s unpleasant body odour increases others’ helping behaviours toward this person’.
A third experiment involving 42 people showed participants were more generous to people with bad body odour if they were not held responsible for smelling bad than if their BO was seen as their fault.
However, the earlier findings also indicate that if such information is not available ‘people seem to give the bad smelling person the benefit of the doubt’.
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john,
uk,
moments ago
I’m afraid I won’t be one of those people. There is nothing worse than BO, it makes me think the person is lazy and not considerate of others. There is no excuse for smelling, soap and a shower isn’t going to break the bank.
Cityslacker,
Leeds,
moments ago
I was stood behind somebody in the queue at the till today who stunk to high heaven. I wanted to hold him underwater until he stopped smelling so bad.
Jon,
Tampa Bay, United States,
moments ago
This couldn’t be further from the truth for me.
PoopyButtStink,
No, United Kingdom,
moments ago
what excellent advice..
freckled hen,
truro,
moments ago
Being nice to someone is not the same as pitying them.
james,
one of the shires,
5 minutes ago
Sorry what?!
When I smell someone with bad BO I look at then in disgust and move as far away from them as possible (unless they have some form of disability) there is no excuse for poor hygiene
userpete86,
IrvineCA, United States,
5 minutes ago
I don’t pity people who smell bad, I actively dislike them.
UKYank,
New York, United States,
5 minutes ago
I was having a curry on Brick Lane recently and I have to say, I was amazed at how badly the British smelled there. I’ve never smelt that kind of foul odour in Holland Park where I normally dine out.
StaceyB,
On the edge, United States,
6 minutes ago
Perhaps this is wishful thinking on the part of non-deodorant wearing Belgian scientists?
Miss Ozzygirl,
City of Angels,
6 minutes ago
Nice one for April fools day.
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