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Experimenters at Berkeley have discovered that humans can track by smell,
similar to the way dogs can. With evolution, our sense of smell has become a
less prominent part of our sensory survival arsenal and it was thought that
although we could detect smells, we were not able to follow a scent trail to
its source. Now, scientists have found that is not the case.
In the experiment, they dribbled chocolate essential oil in a field, leading
to actual chocolate at the end. Volunteers were put into a suit that deprived
them of all senses other than smell (blindfold for the eyes, ears covered and
hands and feet covered to blunt the sense of touch). Then they were asked to
find the chocolate.
Like dogs, they got on all fours and started sniffing the ground to identify
the smell and follow it. They were observed to use the same methodology as
dogs, which is sniffing from side to side. They were able to detect which
nostril the scent was strongest on and continually criss-crossing the scent
trail, making corrections based on which side the scent was strongest.
Of course, it is also true that humans can detect a much lower concentration
of the scent molecules compared to a dog, but it still has
interesting implications for
scent marketing. What if, instead of or in addition to ambient scent, a store
used a scent trail to lead to its higher margin products?
If you think about professional basketball and try to associate it with a scent, you would probably come up with Eau de Locker Room, stale beer or fried food, but an NBA team is out to change that. The Brooklyn Nets is now using a scent various described as "perfumey" "clean"
