Psychophysical and Social Ratings of Human Body Odor
Male graduate students provided body odor samples, rated the odors for unpleasantness using a standard magnitude estimation procedure, and attempted to identify their own odor. Male and female undergraduates rated the odors for unpleasant ness and evaluated odor donors using bipolar adjective scales. Results indicated a high degree of agreement among subjects' (graduates and undergraduates) rankings of odor unpleasantness. Correlations demonstrated that odor unpleasantness was generally associated with socially undesirable traits. Odor donors typically rated their own odor as more pleasant than did other raters. Odor donors demonstrated marginal ability to detect their own odor.