It is our human nature to think about death, and the way we describe death also relates to the scene of a dead animal, human, bird or fly. So what is the connection between all of them that we haven’t considered before? Smell.
According to current research, the human nose is capable of detecting a wide range of odors that cannot be classified into any specific category, but to which it responds nonetheless. For example, the smell produced by a chemical called putrescine. This is a chemical produced by the body when it begins to decompose, and there is one small thing to be aware of: the smell is a result of the animal’s necrophobic behavior during evolution, and these reactions are believed to have developed at least 420 AD. million years ago.
It is believed that animals react to the smell of putrescine as a sense of danger in two different ways: a reaction to the fact that a predator is nearby, and another – as an instinct to the fact that they are in mortal danger. tells them. Run away.
Scientists have done 4 different experiments on humans with a mixture of putrescine, water and ammonia just to prove that human reactions and behavior are no different from animal behavior.
Vigilance
The first experiment tested participants for the smell of putrescine by exposing them to its smell and testing vigilance. The results showed that participants exposed to the smell of putrescine were much more alert than those exposed to ammonia and water.
Escape behavior
The researchers performed another test exactly where they tested an unsuspecting group of people who were asked to rate the strength, aversion and familiarity of the smell. The researchers wanted to see the group’s reaction to the smells and how fast the participants walked 80 meters away. Those who smelled putreskin tended to move away from the scene much faster, indicating that the smell evoked a strong desire to escape.
In another experiment, immediately after the group was exposed to the smell of putrescine, the researchers gave the participants a word stem completion task.
The results showed that the smell of putrescine prompted the group to form word stems all related to escape and other associations with the word escape. The scent has also been updated to use yarn words.
Defense and hostility
In the final experiment, participants were exposed to a fairly decent odor that they could not detect. In this experiment, they were given a text to study, with the task of evaluating its author.
They were unable to detect the subtle smell of putrescine, and participants showed defensiveness and hostility toward the author. It also showed that unconscious exposure to the smell evoked defensive behavior in the participants.