Ethnic influences on the perceptual properties of human chemosignals.

Physiol Behav

William James Center for Research, Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada, Lisbon, Portugal; Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; CINTESIS.UA, Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro, Portugal.

Published: October 2019

Individuals of African and Caucasian descent show different chemical signatures in their body odors (BO). Does such biological difference have a perceptual correlate? We tested BO donors and raters of Afro-Portuguese (AP) and Caucasian (C) descent to investigate whether olfactory ratings reveal an ethnic bias and whether olfactory ethnic discrimination is possible. C (vs. AP) women rated the C BO as more pleasant, even when controlling for intensity. The C BO labelled as AP was rated as more intense by C raters. Although discriminability of ethnicity and sex is at chance, a nominal advantage for AP vs. C BO emerges.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.05.005DOI Listing

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