I always thought when people talked about “smelling fear” it was just a poetic way of saying it was obvious that someone was afraid. I’ve certainly never been aware of picking up on a person’s emotions via scent or heard someone say that they’ve done that.
Can you smell it on yourself? Like, do you find that your sweaty clothes smell the same after a run and, say, a presentation (or something else that gives you anxiety/scares you)? I think it’s most noticeable with my own sweat, but fear/anxiety sweat smells bad to me in a way that normal body odor or exercise sweat don’t.
Sex sweat also smells very different, but that’s normally more pleasant to me than the others. I haven’t noticed a specific smell of aggression or any other kind of sweat though.
Edit: I think you’re right that “smelling fear” is metaphoric, but I did not realize that until I started talking about it.
Maybe check it out next time, if you have a good sense of smell. Apparently it’s something people react to subconsciously, so I wonder if it can be trained.
That’s crazy to me. I’m just learning all this. I barely have a sense of smell so distinguishing between different kinds of sweats is probably entirely out of my reach. I’ll try and train it still
I always thought when people talked about “smelling fear” it was just a poetic way of saying it was obvious that someone was afraid. I’ve certainly never been aware of picking up on a person’s emotions via scent or heard someone say that they’ve done that.
Can you smell it on yourself? Like, do you find that your sweaty clothes smell the same after a run and, say, a presentation (or something else that gives you anxiety/scares you)? I think it’s most noticeable with my own sweat, but fear/anxiety sweat smells bad to me in a way that normal body odor or exercise sweat don’t.
Sex sweat also smells very different, but that’s normally more pleasant to me than the others. I haven’t noticed a specific smell of aggression or any other kind of sweat though.
Edit: I think you’re right that “smelling fear” is metaphoric, but I did not realize that until I started talking about it.
No, I can’t say I’ve ever noticed a particular scent of anxiety on myself.
Maybe check it out next time, if you have a good sense of smell. Apparently it’s something people react to subconsciously, so I wonder if it can be trained.
That’s crazy to me. I’m just learning all this. I barely have a sense of smell so distinguishing between different kinds of sweats is probably entirely out of my reach. I’ll try and train it still