Crossmodal Research Laboratory, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, New Radcliffe House, Walton Street, Oxford, OX2 6BW, UK.
Department of Medicine, Mackay Medical College, Sanzhi District, New Taipei City, 252, Taiwan.
Multisens Res. 2022 May 31;35(6):447-469. doi: 10.1163/22134808-bja10076.
We report two experiments designed to investigate whether the presentation of a range of pleasant fragrances, containing both floral and fruity notes, would modulate people's judgements of the facial attractiveness (Experiment 1) and age (Experiment 2) of a selection of typical female faces varying in age in the range 20-69 years. In Experiment 1, male participants rated the female faces as less attractive when presented with an unpleasant fragrance compared to clean air. The rated attractiveness of the female faces was lower when the participants rated the unpleasant odour as having a lower attractiveness and pleasantness, and a higher intensity. In Experiment 2, both male and female participants rated the age of female faces while presented with one of four pleasant fragrances or clean air as a control. Only the female participants demonstrated a crossmodal effect, with the pleasant fragrances inducing an older rating for female faces in the 40-49-years-old age range, whereas a younger rating was documented for female faces in the 60-69-years-old age range. Taken together, these results are consistent with the view that while the valence of fragrance (pleasant versus unpleasant) exerts a robust crossmodal influence over judgements of facial attractiveness, the effects of pleasant fragrance on judgements of a person's age appear to be less reliable. One possible explanation for the differing effect of scent in the two cases relates to the fact that attractiveness judgements are more subjective, hedonic, and/or intuitive than age ratings which are more objective, cognitive-mediated, and/or analytic in nature.
我们报告了两项旨在调查一系列宜人香味（包含花香和果香）的呈现是否会调节人们对一系列典型女性面孔的面部吸引力（实验 1）和年龄（实验 2）判断的实验。在实验 1 中，与清洁空气相比，当呈现令人不快的香味时，男性参与者认为女性面孔的吸引力降低。当参与者将令人不快的气味评定为吸引力和愉悦度较低、强度较高时，女性面孔的吸引力评分更低。在实验 2 中，男性和女性参与者在呈现四种宜人香味之一或清洁空气作为对照时，对女性面孔的年龄进行了评定。只有女性参与者表现出跨模态效应，当呈现宜人香味时，40-49 岁年龄组的女性面孔被评定为更年长，而 60-69 岁年龄组的女性面孔被评定为更年轻。总的来说，这些结果与以下观点一致，即虽然香味的效价（宜人与不悦）对面部吸引力的判断产生了强大的跨模态影响，但宜人香味对人年龄的判断的影响似乎不太可靠。两种情况下气味影响不同的一个可能解释与以下事实有关，即吸引力判断比年龄评定更主观、更愉悦、更直观，而年龄评定则更客观、更受认知介导、更具分析性。
