Posted by Dinah on May 5, 2007, at 11:43:30
In reply to Re: Atropine odour of fear » Dinah, posted by scratchpad on May 2, 2007, at 18:47:13
Yeah, in researching the correct name for what I was describing, I ran across a study where they swabbed sweat from under the arms of men who'd seen a frightening movie, and a control group, and women apparently sniffed them as they did a test? I'm doing this from memory, so details might be wrong. The women who sniffed the fear sweat did better on the test than the women who didn't. I think there was another test where women were able to correctly identify fear sweat from men a high percentage of the time.
I'm not sure why the gender roles were important. Women identify scent better? Men emit more odor?
And I don't know why it would be hard to smell either. Apocrine glands are found in the underarms, face, scalp, ears, eyelids, genital area, and navel. I'm not sure about the face scalp and eyelids, but the rest stink to high heaven in a very characteristic way when I've had a panic attack.
Maybe *I* have an abnormally stinky fear response. :)
But I'd challenge *anyone* man or woman, sensitive or not to smell, to not be able to pick out the clothing I've worn during a panic attack.
The scent is caused by bacteria breaking down the fatty secretions of the apocrine glands, so it's not an immediate smell. At least not to human noses.
I think they talk about the evolutionary benefits being something like if one ant senses danger, they emit an odor that sends the other ants running. I'm still not sure how that would benefit us, since human noses aren't all that good at sniffing pheromones. And even if they do subliminally, I'm not sure we move faster than our predators.
poster:Dinah
thread:752547
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20070502/msgs/756044.html