{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]],"date-time":"2026-07-22T05:07:39Z","timestamp":1784696859645,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]],"date-time":"2026-07-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784678400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>This review synthesizes research on how olfactory stimuli influence social cognition, emotions, and prejudice, an area that remains understudied despite the olfactory system's direct neural connections to limbic regions like the amygdala and hippocampus. Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, the authors systematically searched PubMed and Web of Science (2000\u20132025), identifying 21 eligible studies from 569 records. The literature reveals three core mechanisms through which odors exert their effects: (1) early perceptual modulation of social stimuli, (2) affective priming via disgust and valence systems, and (3) higher-order modulation of social judgments and moral evaluation. Unpleasant odors (e.g., sweat, rotten smells) increase vigilance, bias emotion perception, and amplify both implicit and explicit prejudices against marginalized groups such as gay men or immigrants. Putative human chemosignals like androstadienone and hedione subtly modulate mood, attention, and social judgments in context-dependent ways. Individual differences\u2014including disgust sensitivity, neuroticism, and religiosity\u2014systematically moderate these effects. Neuroimaging (EEG\/fMRI) shows that odors engage distributed networks involving the amygdala, insula, and frontal regions, affecting early and late-stage emotional processing. The authors conclude that olfactory stimuli act as powerful, often subconscious modulators of social cognition. They propose that odors function as contextual priors that bias social inference, especially under conditions of ambiguity or uncertainty. These findings highlight the need to integrate olfactory dimensions into models of social behavior and bias formation. Future research should employ ecologically valid paradigms such as virtual reality to better understand how smells shape real-world interpersonal and intergroup dynamics.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1883832","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]],"date-time":"2026-07-22T04:49:01Z","timestamp":1784695741000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The influence of olfactory stimuli on social cognition, prejudice and emotions: a systematic review of the literature"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Michela","family":"Alemanno","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L'Aquila","place":["L'Aquila, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Simone","family":"Migliore","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L'Aquila","place":["L'Aquila, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Simona","family":"Massimino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cognitive Psychological Pedagogical and Cultural Studies Sciences, University of Messina","place":["Messina, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Francesca","family":"Ferraioli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cognitive Psychological Pedagogical and Cultural Studies Sciences, University of Messina","place":["Messina, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Andrea","family":"Schito","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, University of Salento","place":["Lecce, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Carmelo M.","family":"Vicario","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cognitive Psychological Pedagogical and Cultural Studies Sciences, University of Messina","place":["Messina, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sara","family":"Invitto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, University of Salento","place":["Lecce, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Giuseppe","family":"Curcio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L'Aquila","place":["L'Aquila, Italy"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1093\/scan\/nsx060","article-title":"The theory of constructed emotion: an active inference account of interoception and categorization","volume":"12","author":"Barrett","year":"2017","journal-title":"Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci."},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"617","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev.psych.59.103006.093639","article-title":"Grounded cognition","volume":"59","author":"Barsalou","year":"2008","journal-title":"Annu. Rev. Psychol."},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"191","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jphysparis.2004.03.018","article-title":"Multisensory integration: methodological approaches and emerging principles in the human brain","volume":"98","author":"Calvert","year":"2004","journal-title":"J. Physiol. Paris"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-019-41937-0","article-title":"Body odors (even when masked) make you more emotional: behavioral and neural insights","volume":"9","author":"Cecchetto","year":"2019","journal-title":"Sci. Rep."},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"345","DOI":"10.1093\/chemse\/bji029","article-title":"The effect of emotion and personality on olfactory perception","volume":"30","author":"Chen","year":"2005","journal-title":"Chem. Senses"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"181","DOI":"10.1017\/S0140525X12000477","article-title":"Whatever next? Predictive brains, situated agents, and the future of cognitive science","volume":"36","author":"Clark","year":"2013","journal-title":"Behav. Brain Sci."},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"53","DOI":"10.1521\/bumc.2023.87.suppA.53","article-title":"Disgust as a transdiagnostic index of mental illness: a narrative review of clinical populations","volume":"87","author":"Culicetto","year":"2023","journal-title":"Bull Menninger Clin. Spring"},{"key":"B8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"362","DOI":"10.1002\/ejsp.1945","article-title":"Induced disgust affects implicit and explicit responses toward gay men and lesbians","volume":"43","author":"Cunningham","year":"2013","journal-title":"Eur. J. Soc. Psychol."},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"97","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tics.2006.12.005","article-title":"Attitudes and evaluations: a social cognitive neuroscience perspective","volume":"11","author":"Cunningham","year":"2007","journal-title":"Trends Cogn. Sci."},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"558","DOI":"10.1177\/0956797620970548","article-title":"Titrating the smell of fear: initial evidence for dose-invariant behavioral, physiological, and neural responses","volume":"32","author":"de Groot","year":"2021","journal-title":"Psychol. Sci."},{"key":"B11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"127","DOI":"10.1038\/nrn2787","article-title":"The free-energy principle: a unified brain theory?","volume":"11","author":"Friston","year":"2010","journal-title":"Nature Reviews. Neuroscience"},{"key":"B12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1104","DOI":"10.1177\/0301006619872055","article-title":"Discrimination between individual body odors is unaffected by perfume","volume":"48","author":"Gaby","year":"2019","journal-title":"Perception"},{"key":"B13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"263","DOI":"10.1080\/00207450802333953","article-title":"Aromatherapy facts and fictions: a scientific analysis of olfactory effects on mood, physiology and behavior","volume":"119","author":"Herz","year":"2009","journal-title":"Int. J. Neurosci."},{"key":"B14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"86","DOI":"10.1016\/j.nlm.2017.07.004","article-title":"Aversive smell associations shape social judgment","volume":"144","author":"Homan","year":"2017","journal-title":"Neurobiol. Learn. Mem."},{"key":"B15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"45","DOI":"10.1016\/j.yhbeh.2017.12.003","article-title":"Bayesian informed evidence against modulation of androstadienone-effects by genotypic receptor variants and participant sex: a study assessing Stroop interference control, mood and olfaction","volume":"98","author":"Hornung","year":"2018","journal-title":"Horm. Behav."},{"key":"B16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"548","DOI":"10.1016\/j.yhbeh.2009.01.002","article-title":"Putative human pheromone androstadienone attunes the mind specifically to emotional information","volume":"55","author":"Hummer","year":"2009","journal-title":"Horm. Behav."},{"key":"B17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"23","DOI":"10.1037\/a0023984","article-title":"Disgusting smells cause decreased liking of gay men","volume":"12","author":"Inbar","year":"2012","journal-title":"Emotion (Washington, D.C.)"},{"key":"B18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"779","DOI":"10.3390\/brainsci15080779","article-title":"Prejudice, proxemic space, and social odor: the representation of the \u2018outsider' through an evolutionary metaverse psychology perspective","volume":"15","author":"Invitto","year":"2025","journal-title":"Brain Sci."},{"key":"B19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1275","DOI":"10.1097\/01.wnr.0000130234.51411.0e","article-title":"Smelling human sex hormone-like compounds affects face gender judgment of men","volume":"15","author":"Kov\u00e1cs","year":"2004","journal-title":"Neuroreport"},{"key":"B20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"113494","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bbr.2021.113494","article-title":"The processing characteristics of bodily expressions under the odor context: an ERP study","volume":"414","author":"Li","year":"2021","journal-title":"Behav. Brain Res."},{"key":"B21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"24004","DOI":"10.1098\/rsos.240004","article-title":"Little evidence that androstadienone affects social distance-dependent prosocial behaviour: a pre-registered study","volume":"11","author":"Lu","year":"2024","journal-title":"R. Soc. Open Sci."},{"key":"B22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.13129\/2282-1619\/mjcp-4667","article-title":"Does fasting make us all equal? Evidence on the influence of appetite on implicit sexual prejudice","volume":"13","author":"Lucifora","year":"2025","journal-title":"Mediterr. J. Clin. Psychol"},{"key":"B23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"197","DOI":"10.1016\/j.biopsycho.2005.01.008","article-title":"Subthreshold amounts of social odorant affect mood, but not behavior, in heterosexual women when tested by a male, but not a female, experimenter","volume":"70","author":"Lundstr\u00f6m","year":"2005","journal-title":"Biol. Psychol."},{"key":"B24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"839","DOI":"10.1093\/scan\/nst057","article-title":"Crossmodal emotional integration in major depression","volume":"9","author":"M\u00fcller","year":"2014","journal-title":"Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci."},{"key":"B25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1980","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2015.01980","article-title":"Chemosensory Communication of gender information: masculinity bias in body odor perception and femininity bias introduced by chemosignals during social perception","volume":"6","author":"Mutic","year":"2016","journal-title":"Front. Psychol."},{"key":"B26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"113458","DOI":"10.1016\/j.physbeh.2021.113458","article-title":"Prior exposure to Hedione, a model of pheromone, does not affect female ratings of male facial attractiveness or likeability","volume":"238","author":"Oleszkiewicz","year":"2021","journal-title":"Physiol. Behav."},{"key":"B27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"160","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.n160","article-title":"PRISMA 2020 explanation and elaboration: updated guidance and exemplars for reporting systematic reviews","volume":"372","author":"Page","year":"2021","journal-title":"The BMJ"},{"key":"B28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3418","DOI":"10.1098\/rstb.2011.0029","article-title":"The behavioural immune system and the psychology of human sociality","volume":"366","author":"Schaller","year":"2011","journal-title":"Philosoph. Transact. Royal Soc. Biol. Sci."},{"key":"B29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"746","DOI":"10.1016\/j.neuroimage.2010.07.012","article-title":"Processing of disgusted faces is facilitated by odor primes: a functional MRI study","volume":"53","author":"Seubert","year":"2010","journal-title":"NeuroImage"},{"key":"B30","first-page":"53","article-title":"\u201cSocially situated cognition: cognition in its social context,\u201d","volume-title":"Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 36","author":"Smith","year":"2004"},{"key":"B31","volume-title":"The Merging of the Senses","author":"Stein","year":"1993"},{"key":"B32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1108","DOI":"10.1176\/appi.ajp.2010.09101529","article-title":"The role of histamine degradation gene polymorphisms in moderating the effects of food additives on children's ADHD symptoms","volume":"167","author":"Stevenson","year":"2010","journal-title":"Am. J. Psychiatry"},{"key":"B33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"112540","DOI":"10.31234\/osf.io\/hpwvf","article-title":"Background odors affect behavior in a dot-probe task with emotionally expressive faces","volume":"210","author":"Syrj\u00e4nen","year":"","journal-title":"Physiol Behav"},{"key":"B34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1000","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2018.01000","article-title":"Background odors modulate N170 ERP component and perception of emotional facial stimuli","volume":"9","author":"Syrj\u00e4nen","year":"","journal-title":"Front. Psychol."},{"key":"B35","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"32","DOI":"10.1016\/j.bandc.2018.05.003","article-title":"The effect of hunger and satiety in the judgment of ethical violations","volume":"125","author":"Vicario","year":"2018","journal-title":"Brain Cogn."},{"key":"B36","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"151","DOI":"10.1093\/scan\/nsaa036","article-title":"Indignation for moral violations suppresses the tongue motor cortex: preliminary TMS evidence","volume":"17","author":"Vicario","year":"2022","journal-title":"Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci."},{"key":"B37","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"570","DOI":"10.1080\/13825585.2020.1799926","article-title":"Age differences in olfactory affective responses: evidence for a positivity effect and an emotional dedifferentiation","volume":"28","author":"Vieillard","year":"2021","journal-title":"Neuropsychol. Develop. Cognit."},{"key":"B38","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"221","DOI":"10.1016\/j.physbeh.2019.01.006","article-title":"Body odor disgust sensitivity is associated with prejudice towards a fictive group of immigrants","volume":"201","author":"Zakrzewska","year":"2019","journal-title":"Physiol. Behav."},{"key":"B39","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"20","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2020.00301","article-title":"An overprotective nose? implicit bias is positively related to individual differences in body odor disgust sensitivity","volume":"11","author":"Zakrzewska","year":"2020","journal-title":"Front. Psychol."},{"key":"B40","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"4119","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.94.8.4119","article-title":"Emotion, olfaction, and the human amygdala: amygdala activation during aversive olfactory stimulation","volume":"94","author":"Zald","year":"1997","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA."}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Psychology"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1883832\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]],"date-time":"2026-07-22T04:49:08Z","timestamp":1784695748000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1883832\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]]},"references-count":40,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1883832"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1883832","relation":{},"ISSN":["1664-1078"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1664-1078","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,22]]},"article-number":"1883832"}}