People's psychological and physiological responses to the combined smell-thermal environments

Abstract

Both smell and thermal sensation are important sensory modalities for the human body. To reveal the adaptation pattern of the human body in complex environments and improve the quality of the human living environment, it is important to study the compound mechanisms of olfactory and thermal sensations on people's psychological perception and physiological indicators. In this study, three olfactory environment variables (peppermint, Homalomena occulta, and dried ginger) and three thermal environment variables (16 °C, 20 °C, and 24 °C) were selected, and the psychological and physiological data were obtained from 24 healthy subjects. The results showed that both the olfactory and thermal environments had effects on thermal sensation, thermal comfort, and total comfort (p < 0.05). The olfactory environment (η2 = 0.126) had a more significant effect on the total comfort when compared with the thermal environment (η2 = 0.029), while the thermal environment did not have a significant effect on the odour comfort. In addition, the thermal environment was found to have a significant effect on the skin temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure indicators, while the olfactory environment had no significant effects. This study suggests that the olfactory environment has more influence on the subjective perception of the human body than the thermal environment, but it does not directly affect the physiological indicators, while the thermal environment has some influence on the psychological perception and physiological indicators. Therefore, by creating an olfactory environment, it could be possible to improve environmental comfort.