Our brain efficiently processes sensory input by merging data from multiple senses, creating associations like warmer temperatures with warmer colors or flavors with specific colors. A study in Frontiers in Psychology has experimentally demonstrated how these crossmodal associations with our sense of smell can influence our perception of colors.

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An employee smells a glass of Moscato in the La Caudrina wine cellar in Castiglione Tinella, near Cuneo, Langhe countryside, Northwestern Italy, on March 25, 2022. 

Surprising Link Between Odors, Colors Perception

A recent study in Frontiers in Psychology is shedding light on a phenomenon that appears to be more prevalent than previously anticipated. Dr. Ryan Ward, a senior lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University in Liverpool, UK served as the lead author of this research.

He commented that their findings indicate that various odors have an influence on how humans perceive color. To investigate this intriguing connection between odor and color perception, Ward and his colleagues conducted a test involving 24 adult participants, both men and women, ranging in age from 20 to 57.

The study was designed to ascertain the presence and intensity of correlations between odors and colors. Throughout the trials, participants were positioned in front of a screen within an environment devoid of distracting sensory stimuli. Importantly, none of the participants reported any color vision deficiencies or compromised sense of smell.

Furthermore, they refrained from using deodorants or fragrances during the study. Within the isolation chamber, an air purifier underwent a four-minute operation to completely eradicate any lingering odors from the environment.

Subsequently, over the course of five minutes, an ultrasonic diffuser was employed to release one of six scents-selected at random from an assortment that included caramel, cherry, coffee, lemon, peppermint-alongside odorless water as a control, diffusing them into the chamber.

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Following the introduction of these scents, Neuroscience News reported that participants were presented with a screen displaying a color. Their task was to manipulate the color range until they believed they had arrived at the shade they were perceiving.

In a previous study, it had been demonstrated that the scent of caramel often evokes crossmodal associations with dark brown and yellow, similar to how coffee is linked to dark brown and red, cherry associates with pink, red, and purple, peppermint with green and blue, and lemon with yellow, green, and pink.

Findings of the Study

Interesting Engineering reported that the latest findings have unveiled a notable trend among individuals-a statistically significant inclination to deviate colors further away from the neutral shade of grey.

For instance, when exposed to the aroma of coffee, participants tended to misjudge the color "grey" as leaning more towards a reddish-brown hue rather than the true neutral grey. Similarly, the scent of caramel led them to mistake a color enriched with blues for grey.

When Dr. Ward contemplated the outcomes of the study, he elaborated on the significance of the findings. He emphasized that the research illustrated a consistent trend in the perception of grey when exposed to certain scents, such as lemon, caramel, cherry, and coffee.

This intriguing pattern, which he referred to as the 'overcompensation' phenomenon, suggested that crossmodal associations played a substantial role in shaping how individuals processed sensory information, particularly when it came to the interaction between odors and colors.

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