princess
06-04-2005, 12:47 PM
This Common Odor Causes Bad Driving
If you're driving aggressively, take a deep breath through your nose. Sure, it will calm you down, but the real reason is to stop and notice what you're smelling. Do you smell bread or pastry? How about fast food? These scents have actually been linked to road rage, according to a new British study from the RAC Foundation.
Reuters reports that different odors do affect the way we drive. Previous research from Wheeling Jesuit University, West Virginia has shown that the scent of peppermint, cinnamon, lemon and coffee make us more alert drivers. How can this be so? "More than any other sense, the sense of smell circumnavigates the logical part of the brain," Conrad King, the RAC Foundation's consultant psychologist, said in a statement announcing the study findings. "This is why the smell of perfume can turn men into gibbering idiots, the smell of baking bread can destroy the best intentions of a dieter and the smell of baby powder can make a child averse individual quite broody."
A quick list of the effect of specific scents, according to the RAC Foundation:
--Salty sea air: Encourages deep breathing and helps relieve stress.
--Fast food wrappers, fresh bread and pastry: Can cause driver irritability and a tendency to speed.
--Peppermint, cinnamon, lemon and coffee: Can help make us more alert drivers.
--Chamomile, jasmine and lavender: Can cause drivers to relax too much or fall asleep.
--Odorless interior: Can create irritability and even olfactory hallucinations.
If you're driving aggressively, take a deep breath through your nose. Sure, it will calm you down, but the real reason is to stop and notice what you're smelling. Do you smell bread or pastry? How about fast food? These scents have actually been linked to road rage, according to a new British study from the RAC Foundation.
Reuters reports that different odors do affect the way we drive. Previous research from Wheeling Jesuit University, West Virginia has shown that the scent of peppermint, cinnamon, lemon and coffee make us more alert drivers. How can this be so? "More than any other sense, the sense of smell circumnavigates the logical part of the brain," Conrad King, the RAC Foundation's consultant psychologist, said in a statement announcing the study findings. "This is why the smell of perfume can turn men into gibbering idiots, the smell of baking bread can destroy the best intentions of a dieter and the smell of baby powder can make a child averse individual quite broody."
A quick list of the effect of specific scents, according to the RAC Foundation:
--Salty sea air: Encourages deep breathing and helps relieve stress.
--Fast food wrappers, fresh bread and pastry: Can cause driver irritability and a tendency to speed.
--Peppermint, cinnamon, lemon and coffee: Can help make us more alert drivers.
--Chamomile, jasmine and lavender: Can cause drivers to relax too much or fall asleep.
--Odorless interior: Can create irritability and even olfactory hallucinations.