Bulsing Patricia J, Smeets Monique A M, Van den Hout Marcel A
Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, PO Box 80140, 3508 TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Chem Senses. 2009 Feb;34(2):111-9. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjn062. Epub 2008 Oct 20.
Some individuals ascribe health symptoms to odor exposures, even when none would be expected based on toxicological dose-effect relationships. In these situations, symptoms are believed to have been mediated by beliefs regarding the potential health effects from odorants, which implies a controlled type of information processing. From an evolutionary perspective, such a form of processing may hardly be the only route. The aim of the present study was to explore the viability of a fast and implicit route, by investigating automatic odor-related associations in the context of health. An Implicit Association Test assessing association strengths between the concept odor and the concepts healthy and sick was conducted. Three experiments (N=66, N=64, and N=64) showed a significantly stronger association between the concepts odor and sick than between odor and healthy. These results did not match explicit associations and provide evidence for a fast and automatic route of processing that may complement consciously controlled processes. A dual-processing theory of olfactory information is proposed leading to new hypotheses regarding the development and maintenance of odor-induced health symptoms.
一些人将健康症状归因于接触气味，即使根据毒理学剂量-效应关系预计不会出现此类症状。在这些情况下，症状被认为是由关于气味剂潜在健康影响的信念介导的，这意味着一种受控的信息处理类型。从进化的角度来看，这种处理形式可能很难是唯一的途径。本研究的目的是通过调查健康背景下与气味相关的自动联想，探索一种快速且隐含途径的可行性。进行了一项内隐联想测验，评估气味概念与健康和生病概念之间的联想强度。三个实验（N = 66、N = 64和N = 64）表明，气味与生病概念之间的联想明显强于气味与健康概念之间的联想。这些结果与明确的联想不相符，并为一种可能补充有意识控制过程的快速自动处理途径提供了证据。提出了一种嗅觉信息的双重处理理论，从而产生了关于气味诱发健康症状的发展和维持的新假设。
