Scent is thought to be an important biological cue which helps us find the ideal partner and that’s a belief upon which a billion dollar perfume industry is based. Research in Flavour and Fragrance Journal has tested the importance of consistency in the appeal of scent over time.
Researchers recruited a testing group of sixty-three women from the University of Newcastle, aged between 18 and 32. Six men were enlisted to provide odor, obtained by collecting cotton T-shirts which were provided for sleeping in for two nights, repeatedly over three months. The women were asked to rate the scents on ‘desirability’ and were then asked to judge the attractiveness of the six male faces.
The results show that assessments of relative attractiveness are consistent over time and act as an important cue for interpreting judgments on facial attractiveness. The results are also significant for the perfume industry as they show that when consumers identify a smell they enjoy, they are likely to be loyal to it.
From: Flavour and Fragrance Journal
Access the Paper
The new open access publishing policy from Research Councils UK (RCUK) has left a lot of researchers–and publishers–scrambling. In a nutshell, any peer-reviewed research that receives funding from the Research Council must now be published in journals that are compliant with the RCUK Policy on Open Access. The policy aims to make it easier for UK institutions and researchers to publish in open access journals using the gold model.