Scent Prompts Behavior Directly and Indirectly

When a specific odor reaches its biological target in the brain, a transformation in behavior can occur.  We see that very clearly from olfaction research and from people wearing the Ning (TM).  Scent can affect behavior in a second way as well and that depends on experience and associations to the scent.  For example, we know that scent is among the leading ways to evoke important memories.  For example, if growing up you loved visiting your grandparents and associated those visits with the smell of baking bread, then decades later the smell of baking bread will continue to evoke happy, secure feelings.  In this case, it’s the past experience with scent that evokes a memory and that means in the case of experience with scents, that various scents do not have universal effects as they do with terpenes and the Ning.  Take the scent of wintergreen as an example.  There was a study done in the early 60’s demonstrating that the scent of wintergreen was very pleasant to people, in fact, the most favored scent.  Quite opposite, people in the UK, did not prefer the scent of wintergreen and made it their least favorite scent.  When interviewed the Americans said the scent reminded them of the candy that they grew up eating while the Europeans said the scent reminded them of the medicine smells that were common growing up in the post war years.