How Can Smell Change Your Decisions?

Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived... Helen Keller

The sense of smells enters into your decision making far more than you might think. For instance, it can influence your choice of a mate, home or other purchases or even decisions to hire.

Interestingly, the sense of smell played a big role in the lives of our earliest ancestors since it impacted their existence. In fact, people's emotional, physical, and even sexual lives are intensely shaped by both their responses to and interpretations of different scents.

Here're findings from Rachel Herz's newly published book, The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell, that show how much the sense of smell influences our lives...

1. Connects to memory and can be used as a memory aid
2. Vital to sexual attraction
3. Crucial for survival of our species
4. Loss of this sense drives some folks to suicide
5. Newborns and mothers recognize each other by scent
6. Influences people's choices
7. Affects sales and marketing strategies

Here's why... The sense of smell's hard-wired deep into the brain's sensitive areas, that process emotion [amygdala], and, motivation and memory [hippocampus].

Smell Affects Sales and Marketing... ''People judge a product based on the way it smells,'' said Dr. Alan Hirsch of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago. ''If it smells good, we perceive it as good.''

For instance, "most people like the aroma of a new car for a variety of reasons, including smell-induced nostalgia." Tim Moran notes in today's New York Times.

Some realtors advise folks selling a home to bake an apple pie in the oven when they bring a potential buyer because the "homey scent" can evoke pleasant memories in the heart of a customer. And other methods such as vanilla candles, or even carpet cleaning can make the difference.

Be sure to keep calm in an interview because if you sweat too much, the odor can turn off the manager and others involved. People get aggressive and move quickly from offensive odors. Can you imagine too sweet perfume... a whiff of bad breath... a car showroom that's not fresh?

Your homework ahead really counts!

OK, take it from here.... Thoughts?