Can a label change how something smells?
The words “cheese” and “body odor” prepare you for very different experiences. In a study using those labels, people rated the same test smell differently. The chemical stimulus stayed the same; the judgment was sensitive to its description.
Questions you could explore
- How could an experiment separate the effect of a label from the smell itself?
Start reading
- See primary-source-checks.jsonde Araujo et al., Cognitive modulation of olfactory processing, Neuron 46(4), 671-679 (2005), DOI 10.1016/j.neuron.2005.04.021
Abstract of a study comparing judgments of the same test odor under cheese and body-odor labels.
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