Dematte, Osterbauer and Spence (2007) Olfactroy Cues Modulate Facial Attractiveness

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Aim:

To investigate whether the perceived attractiveness of faces is affected by olfactory cues. It specifically investigated whether a pleasant or an unpleasant smell would affect judgments of facial attractiveness

Method:

Participants:

  • 16 female students at University of Oxford.
  • Mean age of 26 (from 20 to 34)
  • Unaware of the purpose of the study.
  • Asked to complete questionnaire to ensure that they had a normal sense of smell, no history of olfactory disorders and normal vision.

Design:

Laboratory experiment – within participants, repeated measures.

Independent variable – odour being used: geranium, body odour, male perfume Gravity and rubber.

             – Pilot study – Gravity and geranium were pleasant, body odour and rubber unpleasant.

Dependent variable – the perceived attractiveness of the male faces.

40 male faces chosen from established database – 13cm wide and 17cm high

                     – Labelled high (20 faces), medium or low (20 faces) attractiveness

Computer-controlled olfactometer:

  • body odour 0.33%,
  • geranium 1%,
  • Gravity 0.5%,
  • rubber 1.2 %

Each session = 3 block of 40 randomised trials (120 in total) – 50 minutes per participant.

One face = showed 3 times, with pleasant odour, unpleasant odour and clean air.      

                     –  Counterbalanced – four subgroups of ten faces:

  • ten with clean air, gravity and body odour
  • ten with clean air, geranium and rubber
  • ten with clean air, geranium and body odour
  • ten with clean air, gravity and rubber

Procedure:

Participants sat on a chair – 70cm from computer screen, chin rest to keep person’s head stable.

Order of events per trial:

  1. Participants to look at a cross on the screen.
  2. Exhale when hearing a quiet tone.
  3. Inhale through nostrils when hearing loud tone.
  4. 500ms after step 4, one of odour was delivered.
  5. Participants had to decide whether an odour was delivered.
  6. 1000ms after odour, a face appeared on screen for 500ms – when it disappeared, odour replaced by clean air.
  7. Screen turned black for 2000ms and then participants presented with a 9-point rating scale.
  8. When response was logged, cross reappeared on screen for 10000ms before next trial.
  9. 5 minutes’ rest after each block.

End of each session, participants had to rate odour on three dimensions:

  • Intensity
  • Pleasantness Labelled magnitude scale – line from 0 to 100.
  • Familiarity

Results:

Facial attractiveness
  Clean air Geranium Gravity Body Odour Rubber
High 5.70 5.40 5.73 5.39 4.96
Low 4.10 4.06 4.15 3.64 3.72
  • Faces were rated less attractive when an unpleasant odour was presented compared to a pleasant odour.
  • No significant difference between clean air and pleasant odour.

Labelled magnitude scale:

  • Pleasant and unpleasant odours were more intense than clean air.
  • Unpleasant odours were rated less pleasant.

Conclusion:

Olfactory cues can regulate perception of facial attractiveness. Participants consistently rated faces as less attractive when presented with an unpleasant odour.

Evaluation:

Strengths:

  • High level of control – since some things were randomised, the procedure was standardised, therefore it is likely that the results were highly accurate.
  • Replicable 
  • Quantitative data

Weaknesses:

  • Unrepresentative sample
  • Lack of ecological validity
  • Subjectivity

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