As part of the study, volunteers were asked to donate armpit sweat after watching a scary movie or a happy movie (Photo: Unsplash)

According to Swedish researchers, smelling other people’s body odor can have a calming effect that helps with social anxiety.

Sounds disgusting? Well, the science behind it claims that smelling other people’s sweat activates brain pathways related to emotions, which has a calming effect.

Researchers suggest that our body odor can communicate our emotional states, such as happiness or fear, and even elicit similar responses in others who smell it.

As part of the study, volunteers were asked to donate armpit sweat after watching a scary movie or a happy movie.

48 women with social anxiety agreed to follow some of these samples in addition to conventional mindfulness therapy, which encourages people to be more aware of their thoughts, feelings, emotions, and their environment to reduce automatic responses.

According to Swedish researchers, smelling other people’s body odor can have a calming effect that helps with social anxiety (Photo: Unsplash)

Some women got to smell real body odor, while others got clean air instead.

Those exposed to the sweat seemed to do better with therapy.

“Sweat produced while someone is happy has the same effect as someone who is frightened by a movie. So there could be something about human chemosignals in sweat in general that influences response to treatment,” says lead researcher Elisa Vigna of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

“It may be that just exposing it to the presence of another person has that effect, but we have to confirm that. In fact, we are now testing this in a follow-up study with a similar design, but also with the sweat of people who go to watching emotionally neutral documentaries.”

The first results of the study were presented this week at a medical conference in Paris.

More research is needed on this topic, so your therapist may not prescribe sweat sniffing anytime soon.

Smell is an important sense as it can alert us to dangers such as gas leaks, fire or spoiled food. It is also closely linked to memory, which is why some smells can trigger certain memories.

In addition, smell also plays a role in the degree of attraction between two people. Research has shown that our body odor, produced by the genes of our immune system, can help us subconsciously choose our partner.