Abstract
Although the view that women's olfactory abilities outperform men's is taken for granted, some studies involving large samples suggested that male and female olfactory abilities are actually similar. To address this discrepancy, we conducted a meta-analysis of existing studies on olfaction, targeting possible sex differences. The analyzed sample comprised n = 8 848 (5 065 women and 3 783 men) for olfactory threshold (as measured with the Sniffin Sticks Test; SST), n = 8 067 (4 496 women and 3 571 men) for discrimination (SST), n = 13 670 (7 501 women and 6 169 men) for identification (SST), and a total sample of n = 7 154 (3 866 women and 3 288 men) for works using University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT). We conducted separate meta-analyses for each aspect of olfaction: identification, discrimination and threshold. The results of our meta-analysis indicate that women generally outperform men in olfactory abilities. What is more, they do so in every aspect of olfaction analyzed in the current study. However, the effect sizes were weak and ranged between g = 0.08 and g = 0.30. We discuss our findings in the context of factors that potentially shape sex differences in olfaction. Nevertheless, although our findings seem to confirm the “common knowledge” on female olfactory superiority, it needs to be emphasized that the effect sizes we observed were notably small.
Highlights
Olfaction can strongly influence human behavior (McGann, 2017), and smells can have numerous effects on the human nervous system—for example, they can modulate heart rate variation (Brauchli et al, 1995), or subjective evaluation of pain (Bartolo et al, 2013)
We found 1873 papers, only 704 with empirical data. 342 studies were further excluded from the current meta-analysis based on different exclusion criteria; the papers could not be included in the meta-analysis: (1) when the sample included exclusively unhealthy people or medical patients (196 studies excluded); (2) when the study was conducted on one sex only (74 studies excluded); (3) when the paper included only people aged below 15 years old (7 studies excluded); (4) when the control sample was subject to placebo manipulation (4 studies excluded); (5) when the original test was modified (46 studies excluded), or (6) when the sample was tested only monorhinally (15 studies excluded)
We analyzed extant existing literature to examine whether sex differences in olfaction exist, and in which of the following aspects—olfactory identification, olfactory threshold, olfactory discrimination— they may be observed
Summary
Olfaction can strongly influence human behavior (McGann, 2017), and smells can have numerous effects on the human nervous system—for example, they can modulate heart rate variation (Brauchli et al, 1995), or subjective evaluation of pain (Bartolo et al, 2013). Some specific odors can increase vigilance (induce higher physical activity and shorter response times; de Wijk and Zijlstra, 2012). Olfactory stimuli were often shown to influence mood (Villemure and Bushnell, 2007; de Wijk and Zijlstra, 2012) or stress response (Ludvigson and Rottman, 1989). Olfaction plays an important role in interpersonal communication. Humans can assess some personality traits of other people (Sorokowska et al, 2012), and body odor pleasantness interacts with genetic information significant in mate selection (Milinski et al, 2013). Olfactory processing is significant in many aspects of human life, and it is important to explore individual characteristics affecting olfactory abilities
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