How odors affect your mood (and how air purifiers can help)
Wake up and smell the science
Whether it’s flowers in bloom, the aroma of morning coffee or smoke wafting through the air, scents can affect your mood—and in a surprising number of ways. “There is now extensive evidence that odors can overtly or subliminally modulate mood and emotion.” – Ioannis Kontaris, Brett S. East and Donald A. Wilson, Frontiers in Behavioral Science.
According to Frontiers in Behavioral Science, five minutes with an unpleasant odor can induce a negative mood in someone, while five minutes with a pleasant odor can have the opposite effect. Scents can go as far as to make you feel more alert, relax you when you’re stressed and even spark latent memories.
How scents affect your mood
The connection between smell and emotion has prompted many scientists to study olfactory psychology and the limbic system, both of which explain why smell is attached to your feelings, including emotional nudges from your past.
According to articles from both The Harvard Gazette and Healthline Media’s Greatist, your brain’s olfactory bulb is responsible for linking scent with what you’ve experienced and sending the feelings you have about those experiences to your limbic system.
“This explains why the smell of rubbing alcohol might remind someone of an unpleasant doctor’s visit, or the smell of freshly baked cookies conjures up an image of Grandma.” – Greatist.
Using air purifiers to remove unwanted odors
Part of influencing how you feel is by controlling those odors, and as the researchers of Frontiers will tell you, indoor air quality is key. “Given that humans spend 90% of their time indoors, indoor air quality can be an important factor for mood and health.” By removing undesirable smells from the equation, you can help control how you’re affected.
The Green True HEPA™ filters of Coway Airmega air purifiers can provide you with that control, by capturing and reducing up to 99.999% of particles 0.01 microns in the air*—including harmful gases, VOCs and (you guessed it) odors. In particular, the Coway Airmega 400S and 300S purifiers connect to the Coway IoCare app, which offers real-time monitoring of air quality for both indoor and outdoor spaces.
Ready to take control of your mood? Shop the Coway Airmega line of air purifiers today.
