Dataset Information

The Scent of Blood: A Driver of Human Behavior?

ABSTRACT: The scent of blood is potentially one of the most fundamental and survival-relevant olfactory cues in humans. This experiment tests the first human parameters of perceptual threshold and emotional ratings in men and women of an artificially simulated smell of fresh blood in contact with the skin. We hypothesize that this scent of blood, with its association with injury, danger, death, and nutrition will be a critical cue activating fundamental motivational systems relating to either predatory approach behavior or prey-like withdrawal behavior, or both. The results show that perceptual thresholds are unimodally distributed for both sexes, with women being more sensitive. Furthermore, both women and men's emotional responses to simulated blood scent divide strongly into positive and negative valence ratings, with negative ratings in women having a strong arousal component. For women, this split is related to the phase of their menstrual cycle and oral contraception (OC). Future research will investigate whether this split in both genders is context-dependent or trait-like.

SUBMITTER: Moran JK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4580480 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The Scent of Blood: A Driver of Human Behavior?

Moran James K JK Dietrich Daniel R DR Elbert Thomas T Pause Bettina M BM Kübler Lisa L Weierstall Roland R

PloS one 20150923 9

The scent of blood is potentially one of the most fundamental and survival-relevant olfactory cues in humans. This experiment tests the first human parameters of perceptual threshold and emotional ratings in men and women of an artificially simulated smell of fresh blood in contact with the skin. We hypothesize that this scent of blood, with its association with injury, danger, death, and nutrition will be a critical cue activating fundamental motivational systems relating to either predatory ap ...[more]

PMID: 26397374

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Project description:External distraction appears to affect at least 6-9% of distraction-affected motor vehicle collisions. Billboards may be good models for studying external distraction in general, and it is also desirable to understand billboard-related distraction per se. However, there has not yet been a clear consensus on the scope of billboard-related distraction or its dynamics with respect to characteristics of drivers, billboards, traffic, and the roadway. To narrow these knowledge gaps, a systematic literature review was conducted on billboard-related changes in driver visual behavior.A systematic literature search yielded 443 results, of which 8 studies met all inclusion criteria. Five studies meeting all inclusion criteria were later identified and added. RESULTS were analyzed in terms of 4 categories of visual behavior: (1) gaze variability (GV), glance pattern activity (GPA), and percentage of time spent glancing at the forward roadway; (2) glances at unexpected drive-relevant stimuli; (3) glances at expected drive-relevant stimuli; and (4) glances at billboards.There was considerable evidence that about 10-20% of all glances at billboards were ?0.75 s, that active billboards drew more glances and more long glances (?0.75 s, ?2.0 s) than passive billboards but did not attract a longer average glance, and that there was large variability among individual billboards within categories (e.g., active vs. passive). The extent to which billboards attracted glances ? 2.0 s was uncertain. There was tentative evidence that billboards did not affect GPA, glances at expected drive-relevant stimuli, or the proportion of time drivers spent glancing at the forward roadway and that they did affect vertical GV and glances at unexpected drive-relevant stimuli.Generally, billboard-related distraction appeared to be minor and regulated by drivers as the demands of the driving task changed. However, this review's findings suggest that this may not be true in all cases. Future research should emphasize the tails of the distribution in addition to average cases, in terms of both the analysis of visual behavior and the complexity of driving tasks. Further research is also needed to understand the effects of billboard design, driver characteristics, and road and traffic context.

Dataset Information

The Scent of Blood: A Driver of Human Behavior?

Publications

The Scent of Blood: A Driver of Human Behavior?

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