Ethnic influences on the perceptual properties of human chemosignals

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 e...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Parma, Valentina (author)
Other Authors: Redolfi, Nelly (author), Alho, Laura (author), Rocha, Marta (author), Ferreira, Jacqueline (author), Silva, Carlos Fernandes da (author), Soares, Sandra C. (author)
Format: article
Language:eng
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Bias
Body odors
Ethnicity
Ingroup
Outgroup
Olfaction
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10400.12/7074
Country:Portugal
Oai:oai:repositorio.ispa.pt:10400.12/7074
Description
Summary: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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