Home Science Health and Medicine How does weight stigma smell? Sense of smell may reveal weight bias
How does weight stigma smell? Sense of smell may reveal weight bias
Could our reaction to an image of an overweight or obese person affect how we perceive odor? A trio of researchers says yes. The researchers discovered that visual cues associated with overweight or obese people can influence one's sense of smell, and that the perceiver's body mass index matters, too. Participants with higher BMI tended to be more critical of heavier people, with higher-BMI participants giving scents a lower rating when scent samples were matched with an obese or overweight individual.