WEBVTT - The Smelly Science of Perfume 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:04.760 Welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how stuff 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:19.479 works dot com. So, Robert, yeah, what is an astronomical unit. 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:22.439 I don't know what astronomical unit. It's one hell of 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:29.560 a big apartment. Oh, welcome to the podcast guys. This 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:32.000 is Alice and the science editor at how storks dot com. 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:34.159 And this is Robert Lamb, of science writer at how 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:36.400 stuff works dot com. And that comes to you from 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:38.400 Bruno in Switzerland. We've been putting the call out for 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.560 jokes lately on faceboo. Nice cheesy science related jokes. There's 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:44.920 no reason that scientists can't be humorous, and there's no 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:48.720 reason that scientists can't smell fabulous, right, right, right, So 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:51.280 today we're talking about the science of perfume, and I 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:53.760 wanted to talk a little bit about the worst smell 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:55.680 that you like, you know, sort of the smell you're 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:58.560 not supposed to like, but you do. Um. For me, 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:01.440 it's it's kind of weird cont that, but go on, well, 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:02.960 you know, you know it smells bad for you're not 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:05.080 supposed to be sniffing it. You know, I'm not talking 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:08.399 about you know, sniffing something to get you know, an effect, 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:10.440 but just you kind of like the smell of it, 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:12.880 like gasoline is mine. Okay, It's like I'm not talking 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:16.640 about huffing, but gasoline smells fabulous. But I do like 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:21.280 it also on that vein rubber cement. Okay, okay, but 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:27.080 that's perfect sense. Wait what's yours? Um Well, I mean 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:28.600 I'm one of these people I tend not to think 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:31.760 of like smells. I like is being like horrible. Um well, 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:34.920 like one example, okay, during fruit kind of gets a 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:37.119 bad rap for being a dozen indeed, have you ever 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:39.520 eaten one? But yeah, that's the thing. It's like I 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:41.760 finally got to try it when my wife and I 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:45.039 went to Thailand and and Grant, we were outdoors in 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:48.160 a we're well ventilated area and okay, everybody's just like 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:50.760 our daurian fruit. The smells horrible, blah blah blah. I 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:52.720 mean not the people have sold it to us, obviously, 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:54.520 but but you know, you hear that especially here in 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:57.200 the States, and um and I really wanted to try 0:01:57.200 --> 0:01:58.640 it and give it a fair shape because I'm kind 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:01.800 of thinking like this kind of like Western you know, chauvitism. 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:04.040 It's like, you know, saying I don't want this fruit. 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:06.280 You're an equal opportunity for you. So I gave it 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:08.160 a shot and it was it was really good. I mean, 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:09.880 it's I think the thing with the Durian fruit is 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:12.560 that you kind of have to go into it expecting 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:14.359 more of a cheese like it's some sort of a 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:18.920 cheese fruit kind of a thing. But really, yeah, but 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:20.840 in terms of things that, like, I guess I do 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:23.720 have to admit that I now remember that like sometimes 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:26.000 like when I'm painting, like painting, like house painting and 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:29.440 stuff like, there is something kind of nice about that smell, 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:32.440 like it almost kind of smells chocolate somehow to me, 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:34.760 like I should eat it. Yeah. Well, I think it 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:36.440 also has to do with a texture of the paint 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:38.680 a little bit. You know, it has that like thickness 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:40.720 when it's going on. And and I guess we do 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:42.840 tend to paint like the painting jobs I've been on, 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:44.440 it tends to be kind of like a brownish or 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:47.280 a tannish you know, or like even like a white 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:50.680 chocolate kind of color. Stuff. Okay, Well, technically that could 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:52.760 be a perfume, because perfume is a pretty I mean, 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:55.120 you can define pretty much anything as a perfume. It's 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:58.760 a pretty loose definition. It's basically something that you wear 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.880 and something that smells. I mean, I'm sure the professional 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.920 perfumers out there I have a more rigorous definition. But 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:07.960 for our purposes, like you don't count like Irish spring 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:11.760 is a perfume, but it doesn't necessarily have to smell 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:16.000 good or good to everyone. Right, Definitely baste on some 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:20.079 of the perfumes I've smelt on public transportation, Yeah, no doubt. 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:22.880 So for our purposes, let's talk about liquid perfume. You know, 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:25.440 the stuff you're gonna find in a bottle um, you know, 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:28.600 a sprayer spitzer um, and that's just going to be 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:32.080 a combo of alcohol, water and whatever key ingredients that 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:34.960 evaporated room temperature that you you know, want to throw 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:38.480 in to make your signature fragrance. And when you're smelling perfume, 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:41.320 you're really just sniffering a bunch of evaporating molecules. Right. 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:43.760 Your nose detects perfume and it sends a message. Shear 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:47.360 brain creating this perception good, bad, and different, whatever it 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:49.360 may be. And you know that's what's going on in 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:51.360 the elevator. Have you ever had this experience, I know 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.480 all of you listeners. Definitely. Have you walk into the elevator, 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:56.680 you know, somebody gets on at the next floor. They 0:03:56.720 --> 0:04:00.840 walk in in with them trills this just ragrant cloud 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.600 of cologne or perfume. And I won't say it's women 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:06.040 or ladies or men, because you know, I think both 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:09.400 definitely do this. Like there was this one dude that 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:12.880 I used to work with him in a before it 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:14.360 came to hou stuff works, and it's like I remember 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:16.040 the day he came in to apply for his job. 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:18.200 It was like, you know that comes in through the door. 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:23.000 It's just this stream of just just really strong like 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:25.440 cologne was just hanging off of him. And then he 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:27.560 left and like the cologne stayed. I think that's when 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:30.279 he gave him the job. It's like it's gonna smell impression. 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:33.080 Yeah he did that man made an impression. Yeah. When 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:34.960 I was in college, is reminded me a lot of 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:37.839 Thursday nights. To me, you'd be going out and you 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:40.240 get in a you get an elevator with a with 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:42.440 a boy and he would just you know, the whole 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:44.760 elevator would smell like dre card noir. Do you remember 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:47.400 that cologne? I think I remember. I think maybe my 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:49.279 dad had an old bottle of it, and I like 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:51.680 found it somewhere and it's like dark looking, right, it's 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:54.320 like dark manly looking cologne, I think. So, like, the 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:56.400 more it looks like whiskey, the more it's okay for 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:58.880 guys to wear it. Yeah, if I sniffed it now 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:02.000 would totally take me back. So what's going on with 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:04.440 the individual ingredients in those perfumes, like what's making the 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:07.960 car or linger so long? Well, my understanding is that 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:10.640 the alcohol works to spread out the different smells, right, 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:13.880 allowing you to to to pick up the different hints 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:16.480 and the complexities of the perfume. Otherwise you'd be small 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:19.360 on them all at once, right, right. So, writer Susan Nasa, 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.000 who wrote the article on our site about how how 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:25.080 perfume works, was talking about in the in the case 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:28.640 of a perfume oil, Um, if you were just to 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.760 smell that perfume oil, which is a really concentrated essence 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:34.680 of the smell, it would kind of be like hearing 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:37.280 all the members of an orchestra all play at the 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:39.680 same time. Yeah, you're not going to hear the you know, 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:43.760 the tuba kind of rumbling. Um. So that that's that's 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:46.200 a perfemale. But the alcohol, right, it allows you to 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:49.560 hear or smell, as the case maybe with perfume, all 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:53.000 these notes um not at once. It spreads them out 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:54.360 like you said, Okay, It's kind of like if you 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:57.000 go to Tapas restaurant and like they bring out you know, 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:01.920 topless restaurant where it and it's, uh, you don't want 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:03.800 all the top as at once in gobl them down 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:05.200 in or you want to be there for like a 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:08.880 lengthy period of time getting the one by one definitely, definitely. 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:12.160 So in that same vein, it makes sense that a 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:14.640 lot of perfumes and when we're talking about perfumes again, 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:16.920 perfume does not applied to women or men. It's just 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:20.440 it's like we said, a smell um so they have 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:23.039 a three part smell and each smell is called a 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:25.000 note in the perfume industry, and that's what they like 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:26.720 to come. But it's just jargon, and I was not 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:29.080 familiar with this at all before we research this. It's 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:32.360 pretty cool, and the smells have different rates of evaporation, 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:34.280 so on the top you're gonna have your top note, right, 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:38.320 and uh, you're gonna smell these within fifteen minutes of apply. 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:42.320 This is where you're gonna find kind of the racy, unpleasant, spicy, 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:45.159 weird smell, you know, something that the designer threw into 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:48.320 just kind of you know, be crazy. This is the 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:53.040 don't apply your perfume on on the train smell, right 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:54.920 when the person next you decides to put it on 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:57.560 and you're like cheese and that that's this. This is 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.440 the top These are the top notes in action, right yeah. Yeah, 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.080 And and and these are the ones, luckily, that evaporate first. 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:06.200 So take us to the take us through the heart notes. 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:09.080 All right, Well, this apparently starts showing up after three 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:12.240 to four hours after you've gotten off the train, ideally 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:15.920 hanging out at work, and these evaporate more slowly from 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:18.920 the skin. The phase of the perfume's life tends to 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:21.120 be what this is the This is the phase that 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:23.640 makes the most impact. This is what you remember. This 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:27.600 is the prime perfume life stage, right, Robert, if you 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:31.960 were wearing a floral perfume, do you wear a floral perfume? Okay, 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.920 So this is where you find your floral notes, okay, okay, 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:36.640 and then you get your base notes, right, and so 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:39.640 these form obviously the foundation of the perfume, the base 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:42.360 of the perfume, and they linger the longest after you 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:44.600 douse yourself in the morning, the five to eight hours 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:47.840 long in a fact. And it's not just the chemistry 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:49.600 of the perfume and you know the rate of the 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:53.960 molecules evaporating, it's you're a factor to right, So the 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.200 top notes of the perfume are going to disappear faster 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.000 if your skin is nice and dry and warm, um, 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:02.920 rather than if you're kind of cool and oily. So 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:04.920 you're gonna so when you go shopping for a perfume, 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:06.800 you need to sort of carry some of the information 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:10.200 with you, like, no, am, I you know, but how 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:12.560 my skin is going to behave with it? Sure? I mean, 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:14.280 I guess I wouldn't hurt to keep that in mind. 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:16.600 And then how you store the perfume is going to 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:19.240 affect the chemistry as well. If you store it in 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:22.160 bright light, that can impact the bonds and the freegrance 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:25.200 molecules and break them um, and then you're you can 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:28.240 have bright sun that canna damaged perfume within a week's time. 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.160 And that was according to a Luca Turan Antonia Sanchez, 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:35.720 authors of the two thousand and eight book Perfume A Guide. Uh, 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.600 that's the one for the dude Kills All the Ladies, right, No, 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:45.280 that's fiction by Patrick Suskin. Yeah. Yeah, the protagonist of that. 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:47.760 What is he he's trying to he's trying to. I've 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:51.199 seen the movie, I've not read the book. Read Okay, 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:53.920 well we complete each other and that then like, um, 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:56.120 he I remember correctly, he wants to, like he like 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.200 falls for these different ladies and like he finds them 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:03.080 into a into perfume. Right, he wants to According to Amazon, 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:06.439 I believe captured the scent of a beautiful young version. 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:08.800 That's it. That's what he's trying to do. And by 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:13.360 version I meant virgin. Yeah. Um, but if it's sort 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:15.600 of like Silence of the Lambs but with perfume, what 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:17.800 do you think about that? Yeah? Pretty pretty good. The 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:20.840 movie was pretty fabulous, pretty really Yeah, it had Dustin 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:24.360 Hoffman and it's a perfumest in it. But but back 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:26.480 to the storage. Think, what's weird to me about the 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:28.720 whole visible light breaking it down? It's like most perfumes 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:30.920 come in like a little glass vials, right, I mean 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:33.760 it's true, it's just begging to be broken down by 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:35.720 the sun, and they're begging to be displayed, right, I 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:38.040 mean because packaging, of course is such a big part 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:41.880 of perfume as well. Well, that goes into another podcast 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:45.640 that we did on the Smell and Science. Yeah, we've 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:47.360 been on a smelly bender this week. Well, there's a 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:50.000 whole deal about how, like how you know, the information 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:53.120 from our other senses also affect how we perceive a smell. 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:56.080 If you tell me that a cheese is cheese, then 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:58.160 I'm gonna respond better than if you tell me a 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:01.760 cheese is body odor and and likewise in general, that's it. 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:03.520 That's a good assumption. Yeah, But the thing is, it's 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:05.440 like they say that it also ends up applying to 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.280 like the shape of our perfume container or the like 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:10.080 the different the name or you know what are all 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:12.800 these different factors that they're using to sell it to you. 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:14.880 It's like that you shape it like an apple, even 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:16.560 if it doesn't quite smell like an apple. It's like 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:18.720 you're gonna be more inclined to think apple when you 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:21.080 when you sniff it. Right, So smell being much more 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:24.520 than just the physical act of sniffing. Yeah, So before 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:26.400 we move on. I just wanted to touch on. There's 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:29.280 one other process that can can harm your perfume, and 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:31.240 you guys know this is oxidation. So this is what's 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.040 going to turn your uncorked wine into vinegar. And it 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:36.360 can do a number on your bottle of Chanel number 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:39.160 five as well. Okay, So don't keep your perfume out 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:43.160 in a like trough on your on your desk. Yeah, 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:46.360 and storing your perfume at room temperature in the dark 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:49.360 and in a spray bottle preserves it well, maybe a 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:51.640 shelf life of two years, which is interesting because I 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:53.360 think I tend to keep my sons much longer than 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:56.320 two years. To self, Okay, I gotta go home and 0:10:56.360 --> 0:11:00.520 clear out the perfumes pomode on the sink. No, I 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.440 will not do that. So why do we wear perfume? 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:07.160 I found this pretty interesting? Um So, the writer Susan 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:10.640 Nasser interviewed this psychologist, Rachel Hurts Uh and she's a 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:14.199 she's a Brown University and she's researched smell pretty extensively. 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:18.120 It Hurts had a couple of ideas about why people 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:21.080 wear these scents. You want to take the men ones? Yeah, 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:23.280 and this this makes a you know a lot of sense, 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:28.959 like young men wear fragrance to attract women or four men. Um, 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:31.800 you know what a preference and uh, of course that 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.080 makes perfect sense. And that's like the stereotype too. You know. 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:36.559 It's like guys putting on some sort of funky scent 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:39.480 generally and on oftentimes maybe not generally, but often not 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:43.960 knowing quite what they're doing when when they're picking one out. Um. 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:45.719 So that's the young guys and then the older men. 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:49.880 According uh, according to Nasser, older men wear it as 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:52.120 a nod to the person who gave them the perfume. 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:55.120 In other words, I'm wearing this perfume because i got 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:56.680 it as a gift and I've got to use the 0:11:56.679 --> 0:11:58.480 whole bottle where I'm never going to hear the end 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:00.280 of it. And I think you and I think you 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:02.679 think it smells nice. So yeah, so I guess as 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:04.760 well as nice, I'll wear it. If she likes it, well, 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:06.559 we're going out to dinner, might as well. That was 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:10.080 myself a little bit. Yeah, generally I don't receive perfumes 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:15.640 except from um. Bonnie's grandmother gave me perfume one year. Yeah, 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:20.760 I think we quietly destroyed it. I hope she's not listening. 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:25.079 Um So, young women may wear it because of friends, 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:28.560 uh and and media influence. This one actually rang true 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:30.200 for me. I remember at a certain point in my 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:33.400 life in middle school, I think I did start to 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:37.760 wear fragrance. And it wasn't because I you know, wait, 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:39.599 you probably were, didn't you like wear it earlier? Like 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:41.480 you went and like trying on all your mom's perfume 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:43.760 at once? Yeah, that's probably true. I probably did. But 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:45.640 you know, I actually bought a bottle from my local 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:48.440 drug store or something like baby Softer, I don't even know, 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:52.199 some terrible perfume. Not that it's terrible, but I just 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:55.079 probably wouldn't buy it now. But it was very much 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:56.560 something that all my friends were doing, so it was 0:12:56.600 --> 0:13:00.480 more like in you know, a reflection of growing up 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:05.280 or something to that effect. Um So, her is the 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.000 psychologists that that a writer interviewed says that women in 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:12.040 thirties do it just because you know, they want to. Uh, 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:14.600 once you get into your forties, they're wearing it because 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:18.160 they like it. This sounds random to me, though, I mean, 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:19.959 you don't like it before and then well, I mean 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:22.679 maybe it's kind of like with you know, some people 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:24.840 steal with like say beer, you kind of like, you 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:28.400 drink beer tastes horrible at first, and then supposedly if 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:30.000 you drink enough of it, you start to love it 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:31.880 and then you like it takes a while to like 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:34.080 build up in appreciation for it. So maybe it's like 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:36.920 you spend your thirties, you know, using these perfumes, but 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:39.640 you don't really necessarily like it, but you know, after 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:42.520 a while, then you develop this real appreciation for it 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:44.960 and then you're, you know, totally into it. That being 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.079 the case. By sixty again, the women are just wearing 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:51.200 it to please others. Well maybe they're just they're just 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:53.760 nice old ladies and they're like, I'm just gonna gonna 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:55.880 wear this because my son credit for me and they'll 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:57.880 make them happy. Kind of a deal, you know, right, 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:01.240 righties are just nice, That's what saying. So sense can 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:03.520 affect our moods and our behavior, right, we know this. 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:05.640 I mean, it can pull up some sort of treasured 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:08.600 memory and it can influence our actions. And there have 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:11.080 been a couple of interesting studies in this vein um. 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:12.560 I think that you guys have probably heard of the 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:14.760 one about the cinnabon. Have you heard about that. We 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.000 were talking about this a little bit before the podcast. Yeah, 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:19.280 what was to do with this again? It's just the 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:22.280 scent of cinamon, right, So put the put the scent 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.520 of cinnabon in the air, do it, you know, in 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:28.400 a mall. Okay, And what you're gonna want to do 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:30.400 is you're gonna get some people involved. You're gonna get 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:34.360 your participants, and you get one person to drop something 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:38.120 and then, um, see if a stranger picks up that pencil, 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:40.640 say that you dropped. Well, it turns out if you 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:42.840 have the smell of cinnamon in the air, um, people 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:45.520 are more likely to pick up that pencil. The stranger 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:47.680 is more likely to pick up that pencil. Good smells 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.520 as a correlation with you know, good behavior. You know 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:53.880 you're going to pick up a pencil, maybe you'll give directions, 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:55.560 maybe you're just going to be an all around nice 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:59.040 person as long as you're within cinnabons. Wow, it's kind 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:00.800 of interesting, it can. It makes me think of like 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:03.280 a futuristic society, you know, where everybody is like a 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:06.040 perfect citizen and they're doing it because they're just constantly 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:08.360 pumping out the odor of cinnamon. You know what this 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:10.160 really made me wonder, and I didn't have time enough 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:11.880 to get into it before the podcast, was what do 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:14.600 casinos smell like? I'm not a hardcore gambler, but I 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:19.440 had to wonder how this sadness, stale cigarettes, sadness and 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:22.680 cinnabone old ladies playing the slats. I don't know, that's 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.840 really I'm gonna I'm very curious. Now. So there's a 0:15:25.880 --> 0:15:29.560 study in France that followed a sort of similar cinnamon protocol, 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:32.320 only they check to see whether a woman who was 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:36.920 wearing perfume would um influenced this sort of similar behavior 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:40.200 and strangers so um, you know, she would drop something 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:42.400 from her person, she would. They would see if strangers 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:44.720 would help her pick up the object, and in fact 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.360 they did. You know, the woman wearing the perfume brought 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:52.560 out that behavior again she's smelt like cinnamon. No, she 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:55.800 smelt like a different perfume. No they did not. Well, 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:58.760 see they should combine these two studies, right, maybe they 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:00.480 have them. It has the best I act if it's 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:04.800 a cinnamon for fume. And then there's just one final 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:06.920 study that I'll get you here. There's a study published 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:09.520 in the Journal of Psychological Science, and that found that 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:13.320 a citrus scented cleanser was associated with people behaving more 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:17.360 fairly when they played a game, a classic trust game. 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:20.840 According to this article on the Boston Globe, like apples 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:23.440 to app sir, what I don't know, I don't know 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:27.200 what the game was. Yeah, so fair behavior, people picking 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:29.000 up pencils for you. I mean, it does seem like 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:31.640 scent can influence action. And and that's just you know, 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:35.480 a smattering of studies that have been done there. There 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:37.840 are many more to explore. But let's let's take a 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:40.640 break from that and look at the genetic side. So 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.480 each of us has a genetically determined number of odor 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:47.600 receptors or cells in our nose that grab fragrant molecules 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:50.120 out of the air around us. So, with more receptors 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:53.480 for a classic compounds like say lily smells, you're gonna 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:56.400 smell lily at a lower concentration, but at normal amounts 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:59.720 the smell could be intense and overwhelming. Alright, But too 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:02.480 few receptors can be a problem. Why is that? Well, 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:06.800 for example, cilantros fragrance consists of many odors. If your 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:10.320 genetic code spells out of variation that reduces your number 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:12.639 of receptors for an odor. You may miss one of 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:16.040 Cilantro's many odors and it may smell soapy to you. 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:18.200 We've got touched on this before, Yeah, we did on 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:20.960 the genetic stuff. They're talking about it tasting soapy and 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:24.600 of course sent and taste or blood brothers. Indeed, So 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:26.879 let's get to the evolution side. And one question that 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:28.800 people have thrown out a lot are you know, are 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:32.080 our old factory likes and dislikes programmed? And there's pretty 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:35.080 healthy argument on this area. So on the pro side, 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:37.119 some people are going to argue that the answer as 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:42.160 to whether we like certain smells isn't really genes but history, right, um, 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:45.600 and you know, way way way back history like Grays, 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:48.639 like just foraging for food kind of things like like 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:51.400 I smell fruit, I eat fruit, fruits great. I wish 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:53.600 everything smells like fruit. Is the center bund thing again? 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:57.280 Yeah totally um, yeah, right, so that kind of harkens 0:17:57.320 --> 0:17:59.560 back to our foraging days are hunting and gathering days. 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:01.600 And then you know, on the other hand, we're not 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:05.280 gonna like the smell of you know, urine feces or 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:08.399 you know, maybe rotten or fishy smells, because like urine 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.760 could like it could be telling me that somebody else's territory, um, 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:16.160 you know, fecal all that's gonna potentially parasites and pathogens 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:20.040 two sees infectious agents, right, So there could there be 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:23.600 an evolutionary mechanism at work there. That's that's one thought 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:27.080 school of thought on this. I'm I'm game to believe that. 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:29.600 What about the other side of the argument, Well, yeah, 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:31.320 there's the other side of the argument says it smells 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:34.120 are an evolutionary programmed and this is this is kind 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.600 of like the sort of short, short and dirty version 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:40.040 of this is like people can get used to anything, right, 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:44.159 Your culture preference, your personal experience can override any smell. 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:46.320 I mean, if you grow up with the latter and smell, 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:49.040 maybe it's not going to bother you. Yeah, you grow up, 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:51.040 you know, gutting fish, then the fish smell is not 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:53.480 going to bother you. Back before the days of refrigeration, 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:55.879 um now, Sir writes in her article, the smell of 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:59.920 rotten meat was tolerated and even liked in Europe. Huh yeah, 0:18:59.920 --> 0:19:01.480 I guess I just don't really have a perception of 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:04.360 rotten hamburger meat per se, just because the refrigerator does 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:07.360 play such an important role. Well, one example that comes 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:09.000 to mind, it's like I don't know if you know here, 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:11.600 go to like like sort of foreign or not even foreign, 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:13.280