Posted on 05/15/2003 9:53:48 AM PDT by HuntsvilleTxVeteran
THE perfume diet may be the next big thing after researchers found men think women weigh less if they smell of flowers than if they smell of pizza.
In fact, a 10-year US study has found that pleasant, floral-spice perfume makes women appear 5kg lighter in the eyes of the opposite sex.
Other odours, including butterscotch, cigarette smoke, grapefruit and pepperoni pizza don't have the same effect.
The floral-spice scent acted as "the olfactory equivalent to vertical lines", said Chicago neurologist and psychiatrist Alan Hirsch, who presented his findings at a meeting of the Association for Chemoreception Sciences in Florida.
As part of the study researchers sprayed a 1.75m tall, 111kg cosmetic saleswoman with a variety of fragrances.
The woman was then sent out on separate days to approach men in various locations and ask them to guess her weight.
Two hundred males aged between 12 and 61 were surveyed.
"Wearing a floral spice odour can reduce a woman's perceived weight by as much as 7 per cent," Dr Hirsch said.
He said the study was consistent with research showing smells can influence human behaviour.
For example, a previous study had shown women who smelled of cinnamon and lavender were perceived to be more intelligent, successful and trustworthy, he said.
Associate Professor Graham Bell, director of the Centre for ChemoSensory Research at the University of NSW, said Dr Hirsch's findings should not be dismissed.
"If someone was wearing a pleasant perfume it's quite possible that an attitude would click into place," he said.
Dr Hirsch said floral odours had been shown to increase blood flow to the penis, so perception of the woman may have been influenced by sexual arousal.
Oh, I've been there, but refuse to admit the 'done that' part. LOL
The study isn't bunk, as the example of varying perceptions of soda flavor when only the color was actually changed, verified over and over again when the study was run by and with the psych classes here, shows. Extraneous sensory perceptions can change other preceptions (at the cognitive level).
Quite possibly the effect is to push perceived weight toward an ideal weight, so that a somewhat anorexic woman might be perceived as heavier, while those above the 'ideal' would be perceived as lighter. A better study could tell. Nonetheless controlled psychological experiments are not 'bunk', even when their results support not only the most obvious interpretation but other competing ones (like the one I just proposed) as well.
Perhaps I could have written more clearly, but I meant the men, not the researcher. I was just saying that my thoughts matched the researcher's last comment regarding sexual arousal. She smells nice, guy gets turned on, won't admit 'fat' girl turns him on and estimates her weight at a lower figure.
Now the trick for the good professor is to design an experiment to distinguish between the three.
That is jibes with your study. It is quite strange to first taste a red liquid and to discern that it tastes "purple" (grape).
The study isn't bunk, as the example of varying perceptions of soda flavor when only the color was actually changed, verified over and over again when the study was run by and with the psych classes here, shows. Extraneous sensory perceptions can change other preceptions (at the cognitive level).
Maybe the study is somewhat useful, but the conclusion is bunk. It may be that a nice smell puts people in a more charitable mood when guessing the wiehgt of a large woman. That is a reasonable conclusion, not as the headline says that "Perfume masks womens' weight."
One would need to repaet the study with different sized subjects before such a conclusion can be made.
SD
5'9" 245 lb woman.
"Wearing a floral spice odour can reduce a woman's perceived weight by as much as 7 per cent," Dr Hirsch said.
7% of 245 lb is approx. 17 lb.
So at one point, some random guy guessed her weight as being around 230 lb?
Will stripes make them smell any better then?
It's more likely that the floral scent makes men more polite!
The correct formula (by way of illustration) follows:
Anyone challenge me??
"Read closer: the conclusion is base on 200 males surveyed..."
Not only that- they appear to be Aussies!
Not quite:
In fact, a 10-year US study has found that
Granted, if you took 200 American men and asked them how many kilograms an average woman weighed you results would vary greatly. But that is only because most have no idea how big a kilogram is.
SD
If a one time thing, it is done almost autonomically. Mostly after the (deed) fact. It's a self defense mechanism to protect yourself from the memory that you were with someone like that. It is easier on the memory and the senses (and in war stories) to tell yourself that she was well built and a little ugly than pretty and fat. If done enough times, then it may be a conscious behavior.
But mostly, TRD, I'm having fun with this and you. Enjoy it without too much thought being put into it.
And you don't mean the bus.
Bada-BOOM!
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