Special Odor Reduces Perceived Weight Up to 12 Pounds

Objective:

Years of research and millions of dollars have been spent finding ways to make people seem leaner than they actually are. Studies have found that certain clothes can affect visual perception of a person’s weight, but few if any studies have investigated the effect of other senses on weight perception. Recently, Dr. Hirsch and his team initiated a test to see if perception of body weight could be affect by scent.

Methods:

1) Dr. Hirsch’s team asked a 5’9”, 245 lb. woman to serve as a model for their weight assessment study. She was not told about the study’s hypothesis, and in order to further control variables, she was instructed not to speak and to move minimally during the test.

2) For each day of the test, Dr. Hirsch asked the woman to wear the same clothing each day and to avoid changes in hairstyle, makeup and accessories. She was also asked to avoid using fragranced items, including perfume, scented soap and shampoo.

3) Dr. Hirsch’s team gathered 199 adult male volunteers, aged 12 to 61 for the next phase. They split the group of men into four separate groups.

4) Dr. Hirsch designed three types of odor perfume sprays. Odor 1 was citrus floral, odor 2 was a mixture of sweet pea and lily of the valley and odor 3 was a combination of floral and spices.

5) The science team assigned each of the male subgroups to one of these three odors. Group 1 consisted of 50 men, Group 2 also included 50 men, as did Group 3. Group 4, also known as the control group, consisted of the remaining 49 men.

6) Each day, one of these odors was sprayed on the model, using enough sprays to make it detectible to those with normal smell perception. Then one of the male subgroups and all of the members of Group 4 (control group) was asked to look at the woman and make an estimation of her weight.

7) Results were recorded by researchers, who then compared overall weight perception of the woman by Groups 1, 2 and 3 to the control Group 4.

Results:

Among the men tested, neither odor 1 (citrus floral) nor odor 2 (sweet pea & lily of the valley) seemed to affect the perception of weight. However, odor 3 (floral and spice) significantly reduced the perception of the woman’s weight by an average of 4.1 pounds. More remarkably, those men who found the floral and spice odor to be pleasant perceived the woman to be a full 12 pounds less than her actual weight.

Conclusion:

While over $19 billion is spent on fragrance products in the U.S. alone each year, few studies have illustrated that these products may have an affect on weight perception. Dr. Hirsch and his researchers suspect that certain odors may in fact cause multiple, subtle changes in both the wearer’s and the observers’ perception of reality. While some scents have been found to actually help reduce weight, this study is unique in that it tested perception of weight.

Dr. Hirsch says that while the benefit of a lower perceived weight may seem to offer nominal health value, he also points out that when women perceive themselves as leaner than they actually are, or are perceived to weigh less by others, they tend to be more socially active and confident, which may in turn lead to further participation in healthy activities such as exercise and socialization.