It is our human nature to think about death, and the way we describe it often includes images of dead animals, people, birds and flies. So what’s the connection between all of this that we haven’t considered before? Smell.
Current research shows that the human nose is capable of detecting various unclassifiable odors, but reacts to them. For example, the smell caused by a chemical called putrescine. This is a chemical released when a body begins to decompose, and there is one small problem to note: the smell is the result of necrotic behavior in animals during evolution, and it is thought that these reactions originated at least 420 million years ago. . Before.
It is believed that animals react to the smell of patraicin as a feeling of danger in two ways: to the presence of a predator and, secondly, to the fact that their lives are in danger according to their instinct. They. Run away.
Scientists conducted 4 different experiments on humans with a mixture of putrescine, water and ammonia and confirmed that human reactions and behavior do not differ from those of animals.
Vigilance
In the first experiment, alertness was tested by exposing participants to the smell of putrescine. The results showed that participants exposed to the smell of decomposition were significantly more attentive than those exposed to ammonia or water.
Escape behavior
In a second experiment, scientists tested a group of unsuspecting people and asked them to rate the intensity, disgust, and familiarity of an odor. The researchers wanted to see how the group reacted to the smell and how quickly the participants were able to walk 80 meters. People who smelled putrescine tended to move away from the area more quickly, suggesting that the smell triggers a strong desire to escape.
In another experiment, after a group smelled Patrecin, researchers asked participants to fill in word stems.
The results showed that the smell of putrescine prompted the group to create word stems, each linked to the word “escape” and other escape-related words. The flavor is enhanced by the use of string words.
Defense and hostility
In the final experiment, participants smelled a pleasant odor that they had not noticed. In this experiment, they were given a text to study and tasked with evaluating its author.
They failed to detect the subtle smell of putrescine and participants became defensive and hostile towards the perpetrator. Additionally, unconscious exposure to odors has been shown to induce defensive behavior in participants.