Babies Smell Wonderful to Their Parents, Teenagers Do Not: an Exploratory Questionnaire Study on Children's Age and Personal Odor Ratings in a Polish Sample

被引：19

作者：

Croy, Ilona ^{[1
]}

Frackowiak, Tomasz ^{[2
]}

Hummel, Thomas ^{[3
]}

Sorokowska, Agnieszka ^{[1
,2
]}

机构：

[1] Tech Univ Dresden, Dept Psychotherapy & Psychosomat Med, Fetscherstr 74, D-01307 Dresden, Germany

[2] Univ Wroclaw, Inst Psychol, Ul Dawida 1, PL-50527 Wroclaw, Poland

[3] Tech Univ Dresden, Smell & Taste Clin, Dept Otorhinolaryngol, Fetscherstr 74, D-01307 Dresden, Germany

来源：

CHEMOSENSORY PERCEPTION | 2017年 / 10卷 / 03期

关键词：

Body odor; Personal odor; Olfaction; Bonding; Child development; HUMAN KIN RECOGNITION; BABY SCHEMA; FINGERPRINTS; ALTRUISM; KINSHIP; FACES; CUES;

D O I：

10.1007/s12078-017-9230-x

中图分类号：

TS2 [食品工业];

学科分类号：

0832 ;

摘要：

Infant body odor is subjectively pleasant to parents and activates reward areas in the brain. Hence, body odor perception might contribute to parental bonding. However, it is unknown whether the perceived pleasantness of children's body odor varies over the course of a child's development. Two hundred and thirty-five parents (M = 36.9 years, SD = 7.3) were asked to assess the personal odor pleasantness of their children (N = 367; M = 9.3 years, SD = 6.4). Odor pleasantness was found to decrease as a function of children's age. Neither sex of the parent nor sex of the child contributed significantly to this effect. We propose that the effect of age-related changes on personal odor pleasantness reflects olfactory modulation of parental-child relationships. Our study suggests that perception of young children's personal odor as pleasant may contribute to bonding and thereby caretaking, which is needed to a lesser degree after puberty than before.

引用

页码：81 / 87

页数：7

共 37 条

[1] Effect of fragrance use on discrimination of individual body odor [J].