The five smells that women love according to science

Smell is a different sense from the others, underestimated as much as taste is overestimated. “About 80% of the flavors that we think we perceive with taste come to us instead thanks to the sense of smell,” he says Roberta Deiana author ofAtlas of Rediscovered Odors (Harpercollins). Smell is the most elusive and mysterious sense, almost for this reason magical, and with two superpowers: the first is the surprise, that is, it comes when you least expect it, it manifests itself suddenly and its presence then becomes all-encompassing; the second is emotion, because connected to every smell we love there is a state of mind, a memory, a memory, “an emotional experience that – adds Deiana – is unleashed in all its intensity without even knowing we realize it ».

Women are more sensitivei to smells simply because they “pay more attention to it”, especially in the fertile days of the cycle, or because in any case they are more used to connecting with their deepest emotions. Smells have the power to trigger emotional reactions in us. There is actually a reason physiological: “While the other senses send the stimuli they receive directly to the brainstem, the part of the brain that regulates essential vital functions, olfactory stimuli end up in the hippocampus and amygdala, the areas of the brain responsible for memory and emotions respectively“. So it is as if the sense of smell is predestined to unleash emotions through the smells we perceive. «In writing this book – says the author – I realized that there were no Italian rankings of favorite smells, while I easily found some of English and American origin. At the beginning, therefore, more for my curiosity, I started asking friends, acquaintances and web contacts what their favorite smells were, mainly to verify foreign data. In the end, nearly four hundred people answered, who helped me get an idea of ​​the most popular smells in Italy ». In short, a litmus test that becomes a real olfactory mapping of our contemporary life: from the smell of the dry cleaners to that of fog; from the smell of the indelible marker to that of the meat sauce; from the smell of the fog to that of glue and of course from the smell of the partner to the smell of their children. But, given that the female population has a greater olfactory sensitivity, what are the five favorite smells of us women? The author has compiled one top five: discover it in ours gallery.

Two curiosities: while it is the males who love the smell of clean laundry, a smell that women really like is that of gas, yes, exactly what you perceive, for example, after having a full tank at the service station. The weak for the smell of petrol it would have to do with the effect that benzene has on the receptor nerves, the molecule in fact activates the gratification circuit by producing dopamine, the pleasure hormone. “In a way we are working to eliminate this smell: hybrid cars are already a reality and fully electric ones are conquering ground day after day, led by Tesla. In the future this smell will probably be just a memory ». The smell of sustainability, instead? «It is certainly not that – Deiana says – of the cut grass, because it could be the cut grass of unnatural lawns, like that of golf courses; rather if I were to indicate a smell sustainable, I would say the smell of wildflowers ».

Finally: if there is a pleasant smell for all humanity, for example that of bread, on the other hand, there is no absolute unpleasant odorProof of this is that the CIA has never been able to produce and develop a Stink Bomb (that is, a stink bomb to disperse crowds) with an equally effective rate of smell unbearable in every part of the world.