Flashback Friday: Want to feel happier? Just smell a happy person’s BO!

Photo: flickr/littlelovemonsterSmelling someone's stinky body odor can really bum you out, at least temporarily. But did you know that BO can communicate emotions directly? According to this study, human body odor may contain chemicals, also known as "chemosignals", that can carry information about emotional states. To test this hypothesis, the researchers evoked emotions in 12 men by showing them movie clips to make them either happy (e.g., “Bare Necessities” from The Jungle Book), afraid (e.g., clips from Schindler's List and Scream 2), or neutral (e.g., American weather forecasts). During each condition, the researchers collected sweat from the shaved armpits of the subjects. Later, they asked female subjects to smell the sweat samples, and they measured electrical impulses produced by facial muscles to track the women's facial expressions. Turns out that women smelling the "happy sweat" had happier expressions (including smiles) compared with those smelling neutral or fearful sweat (the latter ...