What is the smell that everyone in the world likes?

Smell is still a sense that hides many mysteries. It behaves differently than taste or sight, and scientists are trying to figure out why.

Our senses Their main function is protect us from danger. We instinctively steer clear of things that smell bad, or “strange”, or taste bad. And on the contrary, we are attracted to what smells or tastes good.

In the case of sight and faces, it has reproductive goals. We are attracted to a beautiful face or body, because ancestrally it was how a sexual partner was chosen. Now many other things count, from personality to shared tastes, and even profession or social position.

The senses are meant to protect us, or serve us well, but they are affected by different aspects. For example, it is known that visual beauty, or taste, has an important cultural component.

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In some cultures fat is beautiful, and in others it is not.. Or they prioritize certain traits that are unattractive in others.

Something similar happens with taste. There are cultures where they like a lot the spicy, or acid flavor, and in others it is much less appreciated.

But smell doesn’t work like that: it’s not tied to cultural influence.. A study carried out by an international group of scientists, and published on the Current Biology website, tries to discover why.

This study asked 250 New Yorkers of different ethnicities and cultures, who will rate 476 smells. The scientists selected 10 of the most voted.

They then selected 225 individuals from 9 different culturesand asked them to rate those 10 smells.

curiouslythe smell preferred by the 9 cultural groups was the smell of vanilla. Other less pleasant odors, such as isovaleric acid, which smells like cheese or foot odour, came last.

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Analyzing the votes and cultural references of each individual, the scientists concluded that only 6% of smells are influenced by culture. 54% has to do with the personal tastes of each individual. Finally41% are universal odours: molecules that affect everyone equally, regardless of their culture or tastes. It is the case of vanilla.

Now these biologists face new mysteries: why certain molecules are considered universal good smells, and other different, universal bad smells. Y why certain scents depend on personal taste, and others do not.

They are enigmas that the perfume industry, for example, has been investigating for decades, in the same direction: all brands are looking for those coveted universal moleculesto create the perfume that everyone likes.