A Whiff of Fear Can Sharpen a Woman's Thinking

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April 11, 2006
A Whiff of Fear Can Sharpen a Woman's Thinking
New York Times, The (NY)
April 11, 2006
Author: Nicholas Bakalar
Estimated printed pages: 1

Women can unconsciously detect the smell of fear, new research suggests, and the smell improves their performance on mental tasks.

Scientists collected sweat from seven volunteers -- four men and three women -- who watched horror movies while holding gauze pads in their armpits. Then, their sweat was collected while they watched videos with neutral emotional content.

Sixty-eight women next performed a word-association task while smelling the pads. The task involved watching two words flash on a screen one after the other, and then stating whether the two words were related. ("Arms" and "legs" are related; "arms" and "wind" are not.)

The subjects were divided into three groups: the first smelled the sweat pads of sweat collected during the frightening video; the second smelled pads collected during the neutral video; and the third, a control group, smelled pads with no sweat on them.

Without sacrificing speed, the women smelling the fear pads were more accurate than those in the other two groups when processing meaningful related words. There was no difference in speed or accuracy between the three groups when the words were not related.

Denise Chen, an assistant professor of psychology at Rice University and the study's lead author, says she believes that it was the smell of fear that improved performance. "The smell of fear may have made these people more cautious," she said, "and made them better at recognizing meaningful information."

None of the subjects could consciously assert that they could smell fear. "The effect on task performance," Dr. Chen said, "is likely subconscious."

The study appears in the April issue of Chemical Senses.
Caption:
Drawing (Illustrations by Stuart Goldenberg)
Edition: Late Edition - Final
Section: Health&Fitness
Page: 7
Column: VITAL SIGNS: SENSES
Copyright (c) 2006 The New York Times Company
Record Number: 2006-04-11-986259

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