Bratman Co-Authors Study on Odor Awareness Across 19 Locations Worldwide
Posted: 2026-10-30 12:20:03 (CSDE Research)
CSDE Affiliate Gregory Bratman (School of Environmental and Forest Sciences) and co-authors recently published a research article in the Journal of Environmental Psychology titled, “Odors Count Globally: An Exploratory Study on the Number of Conscious Odor Perceptions Across 19 Locations on Five Continents.” Although people around the world perceive odors in similar ways, it is unclear whether they are equally aware of the odors present in ambient air, and past research has relied largely on self-report measures that may be prone to recall bias. The study involved chemosensory laboratories in 19 locations across 18 countries and 971 participants. For the first time at a global scale, it used a behavioral measure of odor awareness, in which participants counted the odors they noticed over the 24 hours after the testing session. Location accounted for 13.1% of the variability in odor counts, and individual characteristics explained an additional 4.4%. Self-assessed odor awareness predicted the number of odors consciously perceived, while age, gender, and chemosensory sensitivity did not. The study offers the first global-scale exploration of variability in behavioral odor awareness. The full study can be found here. Congratulations Dr. Bratman and team!
Date: 10/30/2026