Reacting to Body Odor with Prosocial Behavior?

Apparently, one study showed that smelling bad can sometimes make people feel pity for the “offender” and encourage prosocial behavior towards them. I’m personally not surprised, though. If a decent human being feels that it is not your fault for smelling bad, then why would they not want to be kind and compassionate towards you?

Here’s the abstract (and link) for the study that I’m referring to:

Scents are omnipresent in our daily world and they are of great importance as represented by the use of perfumes or fragrances in the work environment. Even though it has been argued that bad scents invoke negative judgments, we argued and demonstrated that a bad body odor elicits feelings of pity in others (Experiment 1) and increases prosocial behavior (Experiment 2). Further, we showed that only if a person is not held accountable for his own body odor this elevated other’s prosocial behavior (Experiment 3). These findings provide a novel perspective on the way human body odor affects our perceptions and consequent behaviors.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jasp.12203/abstract

Interesting anecdote:
When I told a lecturer of mine about my problem, one of the first things he said in response is that it must be a nightmare for me. This tells me something about how much people, in general, tend to fear having persistent uncontrollable body odor, which may be why it evokes such feelings of wanting to help the person who actually does have it. After all, if they were to ever have this problem, they would want others to treat them with kindness as well.

For the record, the study may have its flaws, and in no way am I saying that I totally agree with the findings of the study.

An Insensitive YouTube Video on Smelly People

Today, I had the urge to do a quick search on YouTube for videos on smelly people, and I stumbled upon one that was made fairly recently (about 4 months ago). For people who suffer from body odor, this is not a nice video to watch as Rachel, the girl talking in the video, shows a lack of empathy and does not seem to be currently open to the possibility that she is just simply wrong. However, if you can handle it, have a listen to what she has to say in order to better understand what I am quoting as I comment on her video below.

Whew, had to watch it again just to remember the things she said, and her words stung even more than the first time I watched it.

She is a young adult anyhow, so I am not surprised she has not had enough insight and experience to understand that people who smell unacceptable to her do not necessarily aim to offend her. Nor does she understand that, sometimes, chronic body odor can be an issue beyond the control of the person suffering from the odor. She makes certain rash promises that are pretty much empty promises for many of us who know we smell bad, hate that we smell bad, and have gone out of our ways to try to stop smelling bad.

After exclaiming that smelly people piss her off, she remarks that it is very rare for her to smell bad because she takes care of herself. Rachel, if you have chosen to read this, may I add that this is exactly what many smelly people do anyway? Do you know that there are many young attractive guys and girls who look clean and neat yet smell bad regardless … and on a daily basis? It does not seem likely that every single one of them would take good care of their appearance yet fail to maintain proper hygiene.

And even if it is the case that every single one of them fails to maintain proper hygiene, it still does not absolutely mean that the reason they smell bad in the first place is because they don’t take showers or baths on a regular basis. It could be that they have given up on taking showers or baths regularly because, no matter what they do, they always smell bad.

In addition to showering, Rachel also mentions that lotions, deodorants, and perfumes help eliminate the odor. And this here is when she makes her first big promise to us “ignorant” smelly people that we will stop smelling bad if we adopt a couple of these approaches. I must say, Rachel, this is a BIG promise to make, and I hope you are willing to own up to the mistake of making such a promise. Why? Because it is utterly false that we would all stop smelling bad by adopting any combination of any number of the approaches you mentioned or had in mind. You see, I (and many others like me) have tried different approaches in an attempt to get rid of the odor only to realize that none of the approaches were working.

You then say you don’t get why people apparently don’t take these measures and why they think it’s ok to smell bad. Well, after what I have said above, do you still believe this is a fair pondering statement to make? We do not think it is ok to smell bad. For many of us, we smell bad because we have each been struck with some disease (known or unknown) that causes the chronic odor so that no amount of water, soap, or any product of concern is going to effectively treat it. And until medical researchers discover the proper means to combat these diseases, we have no choice but to live with what we have. Sure, there may be a couple of known diseases that cause chronic body odor yet could be treated to an extent with strict unhealthy dieting, but they are just two among various diseases that could cause body odor. Some of us may suffer from a known disease called trimethylaminuria (TMAU), but not all of us do. And for those who do suffer from TMAU, such strict dieting is not always an ideal option to combat the odor (due to other medical and health reasons).

And, no, Rachel, most smelly people who know they have a problem do care about the people they are unintentionally offending around them. I am sorry that you feel offended by the smells emitted by people who happen to be smelly. But what I have been trying to make clear throughout this post is that we happen to be victims as well, and that having empathy even for smelly people makes one a more pleasant person than attempting to shame us for something that is beyond our control.

I will concede that you did make a brief comment stating that you understand some people cannot help how they smell, but then you go on ranting about the same stuff you said earlier, forgetting all about that comment. It is as if you only said it for a fleeting moment so that you would not come off as more rude and disrespectful than you actually did.

Do keep in mind that body odor disorders are not as rare as some people seem to think. Sure, they may be rare … but so is cancer. Also, this could happen to anyone basically. So before you judge people around you who happen to be smelly on a daily basis, just hope or pray, if you are a believer, that you would never have to go through the things we have to go through. I would not wish this on anyone, including you.

I had a lot of other things to say, but I think I have said enough. So I will end my post here. Feel free to check some of my other posts here as well.

Something to think about …

You have a classmate who always smells so bad they stink up the whole room. Or a coworker that just doesn’t know when to quit reeking. And you take offense at that. Offended that they would go to such great means to invade your nasal cavities with their unpleasant stench and hinder you from being as productive and effective a student or worker as you can be. How dare they make your life miserable! You are the main victim in either scenario, and you are the one ultimately suffering because of this, right?

After all, if they could just take a few minutes from their life every day to take a shower, the odor would disappear. But no, they choose to be disrespectful and not give a care about your concerns. Either because they are too lazy to maintain proper hygiene, or they actually enjoy being so filthy. You deserve sympathy. In fact, you are entitled to it. You are also entitled to not having to suffer so much because of something that is not beyond one’s control. I mean, all people need to do to keep smelling good is to use soap and water every chance they get. So why are there people who do not do exactly that?

After lots of thinking, you decide you have had enough. And you make a complaint to one of the staff members about the offending person’s odor. You cannot take it anymore. So you want to make sure that the odor stops being an issue for good. However, the staff member may fail to take it seriously enough and dismiss your complaint. Or they may actually have a brief pointless chat with the offending person about it and end up not achieving anything. It pisses you off even more.

If you did not have hatred for the offending person before, you definitely have hatred for them now. For they are a nightmare to you. You think about them day and night but not in a good way. You fantasize about hurting them for what they have done to you. Or, if you are too nice to hurt people, dream of making them understand just what you have to go through because of them.

But, even with all that thinking, you will not do anything about it. You will not go up to them to tell them their odor offends you. Even better. You will not try to befriend them and see the person behind the odor anyway. You will never accept that it could be a medical condition causing the smell. And you will never get that, maybe … just maybe, that person knows they have a problem and is suffering as well.

Instead, you will just continue hating them because you have already made up your mind that they can control their odor and, therefore, deserve condemnation for not doing so.

Ok, I was mainly being facetious above. So let me be serious now.

Dear friend, your problem is not trivial. I accept that you are suffering because of their odor, but it is possible that they are suffering just as much, if not more. If the odor is constantly there, there could be a medical reason for it. And even if there are times when they do not smell, it could still be a medical condition behind it.

Of course, it could be some other factor causing the odor. Factors such as medication, drugs, stress, or what have you. It could be a combination of these factors. It could even be a lack of hygiene after all! However, the fact is you cannot just make the “default” assumption that such a person must be lacking in hygiene because you want a reason for taking issue with them. You have to think rationally about matters like this. And you have to let go of this resentment you may have towards that person.

You are a victim of the odor, but so are they. They are not the enemy. They are your fellow human beings. And it is quite likely that they are hurting a lot. In fact, they may have to live with this 24 hours a day for the rest of their life.

The key is to be understanding. To show love and empathy. And to let them know you are there to support them if they need your help. You may not be able to get the odor out of the way, but you could still learn a lot of good from this. You may not want to be close to that person all the time, and that is understandable, but a little kindness and compassion goes a long way and will make you a more productive person than if you had succeeded in getting them to get rid of the odor.

And who knows? Maybe one day, there will be an effective solution for these problems. Until then, just hope that you do not ever have to suffer this yourself.

My Personal Journey with Body Odor – Part 2

The day when I was first made aware of my body odor problem was one of the most confusing days of my life. I had no idea what to think as I headed back to the classroom, but I made sure not to make eye contact with the teacher or anyone in the class as I went back to the desk I was sitting at earlier. The teacher may have noticed my return but acted like she was unaware of what the story was about and just continued explaining the lesson for the day. I looked at my notebook and realized I still had some problems to finish, but I just could not be in the mood.

As soon as I was back home, I went straight to my room and sat on the bed just thinking about the incident for an hour or so. Then I went to the living room and saw my brother there. For some strange reason, I asked him if he had some teacher today have a private chat with him. He told me he did not and asked me what was wrong. I just told him that all was good and we left it at that.

When I was done eating, I decided to go take a shower to get rid of the “dirt” on my body that was offending my teachers and classmates with its odor. I stayed in the shower for about an hour, carefully scrubbing away at every part of my skin with a sponge covered with lots of foamy soap. When I was done, I felt hopeful despite the embarrassment earlier in the day, hopeful that I would never again offend anyone with bad body odor.

Later that night, as I was lying on bed waiting to fall asleep, I thought more about the incident. It just couldn’t leave my mind at all. I was wondering how I could have been so stupid to allow such an embarrassing and disrespectful thing to happen. In my mind, I was the one to blame for not being “clean enough” to avoid offending people. I also realized then why people did not generally seem to have the desire to befriend me and sit with me in class. I also remembered comments in the past made by past friends and relatives that were, upon recall, actually hints about my own smell. And to think I just simply ignored them and did not take notice.

I was hardly able to sleep that night, but eventually, I did.

The next morning, I woke up feeling slightly better, but still thinking about that same incident. It was another day for me to go to school, and I did not want this to happen again. So I took a quick shower to make sure I was really clean before heading to school. And I did something I only ever did on rare occasions. I put on some deodorant. Now, nobody can say a word about me reeking! Or so, that was I thought.

I left the house and walked to the bus stop. As there were other people also waiting at the bus stop, once I was there, I kept looking around subtly for signs and expressions of disgust and disapproval of my smell. I could see none. So I thought that all was good.

The bus arrived, and I got in. I did the same subtle investigative look inside the bus as well. No signs.

At school, it was the same thing. Nothing. I was going to feel alright now. Or was I?

I was still sitting on my own in my classes that day. And it just so happened that I was the only one sitting alone. Was it still an odor issue? Or was I just not the kind of person that people wanted to be friends with?

Where were the couple of friends I had already made there at school? I did not share any class with either of them that day, so it was understandable why I was sitting on my own. But why was it they always found reasons to avoid spending much time with me during breaks?

I skipped the afternoon classes and went back home early. I felt quite worried, and even scared. Was there a nightmare that was about to occur?

Nothing major happened for the first few weeks after that incident. And, in fact, I was starting to believe maybe I was stressing too much about this. But one morning, while in the school bus, it was revealed to me that I still had some things to stress about. I had taken a shower and put on some deodorant before leaving home, so I did not imagine I would be publicly humiliated for my odor. But it happened. A student yelled out loud that the guy sitting behind him stank. Then, to the amusement of the onlookers, he moved to another seat in a theatrical manner, making exaggerated gestures about how bad the smell was.

As you may have imagined, the guy he was referring to was me. I wanted to kill him right there on the spot. From where I was sitting, I looked at him angrily as he was covering his nose and just wanted to say something. But I faltered and ended up not saying anything.

This put me in a really bad mood that day, and I was unable to concentrate in any of the day’s classes.

As the days passed, I started to realize more and more signs of people being offended by my presence. None of them were ever as obvious as the aforementioned school bus incident , but there were not-so-quiet whispers about my smell, quick glances from unsuspecting strangers, sniffs and coughs that seemed too frequent and unwarranted, and other such signs, pointing to something wrong going on with my body. It was then that I had to accept that I had a big major problem to deal with.

Impaired Sense of Smell Among Psychopaths

I stumbled upon a very interesting study recently and thought I would post the abstract here. Apparently, psychopaths have relatively poor olfactory abilities compared to non-psychopaths as the abstract of the study shows. Of course, it is important to note that there are heaps of other factors that may also impair one’s sense of smell, so for all you sufferers of body odor, please make sure not to jump to hasty conclusions and think that every person who has no qualms being close to you is a psychopath. This is just one study about one factor that impacts the sense of smell.

Abstract

Olfactory processing is known to involve the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). The OFC is also believed to function less effectively in individuals scoring higher in psychopathic personality traits. In this study, we examined whether poorer olfactory discrimination and identification—taken as an indicator of OFC integrity—was associated with the degree of presence of psychopathic traits in a community sample. Seventy-nine non-criminal participants completed the Self-Report Psychopathy scale and a standardized measure of olfactory ability, the Sniffin’ Sticks, measuring odor threshold, identification, and discrimination. Consistent with predictions, we found a relationship between psychopathy and olfactory discrimination and identification but not odor threshold, even after controlling for gender, age, empathy, smoking status, and craniofacial surgery/injury. These findings suggest that brain areas subserving higher olfactory processes—identification and discrimination—are somehow less efficient in individuals who score higher on psychopathic traits. In particular, we suggest that this relates to processing within the orbitofrontal cortex.

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Reference
Mahmut, M. K., & Stevenson, R. J. (2012). Olfactory abilities and psychopathy: Higher psychopathy scores are    associated with poorer odor discrimination and odor identification. Chemosensory Perception, 5, 300-307. doi: 10.1007/s12078-012-9135-7

My Personal Journey with Body Odor – Part 1

It all started back in high school during a math class. While my math teacher was explaining the lesson to us, a member of the teaching staff came by and asked to have a private chat with the teacher. He seemed a bit embarrassed about having to do so. If I remember correctly, they both headed to the room right behind the classroom. I did not pay much attention to what they did after that as I had some math problems to finish and did not want to waste my time observing them.

I was sitting alone at one of the front desks when, a couple of minutes later, my math teacher approached me and informed me, with a look of pity on her face, that the staff member wanted to have a talk with me. I was a bit confused, but I got up and went with the staff member to what seemed to be his office room.

I remember him telling me, once I had taken a seat in that room, that I was not going to like what he was going to say to me. So I listened, in anticipation, to what he had to say. He asked me a bunch of questions, such as what nationality I was and whether or not I had friends. He also may have asked if I worked or was active in sports, but I cannot remember if he actually did. Either way, I did not work at the time, and I only played sports sparingly.

Nevertheless, he then went on to talk about hygiene and how he personally did not like the feeling of being dirty after exercising or playing sports. I did not, however, catch on to what he was really trying to say until a few more words of him talking about the importance of taking a shower and such. That is when I looked down and gulped in shock and embarrassment at the sudden realization that I was offending people around me with my body odor.

He then knew I had noticed what he was implying and told me, sympathetically, that was what he wanted me to realize. After recovering from the initial shock, I tried to convince him I was a clean person and did not have a problem at all with hygiene. I told him I took a shower once every two days. He responded with disapproval and an urge that I take a shower every single day.

He also recommended I put on deodorant or antiperspirant anytime I was outside of the house. I then told him there was no way someone like me could emit such an offensive odor, even suggesting that he may have mistaken me for someone else. As should be seen, I was still in denial at the time. But I think the staff member was hoping I would do something about it and stop offending my teachers and classmates with my odor. When it was time for me to leave and go back to class, he told me I should really think about it.

I did think about it. And I followed exactly what he told me. But to no avail. It turned out that this was worse than he and I had expected.

Unfortunately, that was the only time I ever had a good talk with him. I remember seeing him two other times, but they were such fleeting moments that the most we did was greet as we passed by each other. I sometimes wish there had been a follow-up chat because, thinking back, I really needed that as I had no one else to go to.

It could have been a relatively positive experience for me, but all it did was end up rendering me traumatized by the eventual realization that my body odor was not planning to go away with just water, soap, or perfume. The experience definitely changed who I was, but it changed me for the worse. With no support and no hope, I became a dead vegetable for a long time after that.

What This Blog Is All About

The Body Odor Psych blog has been created to address concerns and matters related to the topic of chronic human body odor disorders, specifically regarding the psychology of those who suffer from such odor problems and those who happen to be around them.

At the time of this posting, I am still a student majoring in psychology, so I do not claim to have all the answers to the questions related to this topic. However, as a chronic body odor sufferer myself, I have personal experience with this problem, which means I have quite some insight to share with interested readers about these matters. And because I have struggled with this problem for at least a decade now, it matters a lot to me that I write about my thoughts and feelings regarding this as it has become a significant (and unfortunate) part of my life and I want people to understand where I, and other body odor sufferers, are coming from.

This blog will serve several purposes, some of which will be as follows:

• To spread further awareness to the public about the existence, and prevalence, of body odor disorders and the extent of suffering that most body odor sufferers have to go through every single day.
• To encourage researchers to conduct serious research and studies into the matters of body odor.
• To help therapists further understand, and empathize with, patients who come to them to talk about their psychological struggles with body odor (whether it is actual or imagined).
• To let the public know that we care about your feelings and that we do not aim to intentionally offend anyone with our odors.
• To let the public understand that it is [at least currently] extremely difficult, even impossible, for many of us to have our odors eliminated (even with the help of a professional).
• To let the public be aware that this could happen to them as well.
• To let those in charge of the laws consider our plight and provide us with some relief from present and future potential discrimination and harrassment from others because of the offensiveness of our body odor.

It is important for all to understand that many of us suffer from chronic body odor disorders exactly because they are disorders. A body odor sufferer could take a shower or a bath twice every day, put on some deodorant/antiperspirant, and still have a persistently offensive odor no matter what.

It is also important to note that there are several body odor disorders out there, with different causes and treatments that have yet to be discovered. In fact, it may come as no surprise that there may be body odor disorders out there that have yet to even be identified by the experts. As of now, we are only aware of a select few. And that is only because those in charge are not taking this issue seriously enough.

While there are already sites out there that help spread awareness of these matters, I hope to go further with this blog and set forth some revolution. We will see how it goes.