Abstrakt
Humans were once considered to be microsmatic, but recent research suggests that we can use our sense of smell to detect important, socially relevant information about conspecifics. However, much of the research conducted to-date has investigated natural, fragrance free human body odours.
While this is important in order to understand the evolution of olfactory communication in humans, it fails to account for the current (and historical) widespread use of artificial fragrances. In this chapter, we outline ways in which extraneous artificial fragrances may augment the underlying body odour, or 'odour space' of an individual, and how this might influence the perception of socially relevant information.
In doing so, we describe some specific mechanisms for the interaction between body odours and artificial fragrances (blending and masking) and we discuss some recent work which has attempted to distinguish between these mechanisms.