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An olfactory demography of a diverse metropolitan population
Andreas Keller,1 Margaret Hempstead,1,2 Iran A Gomez,1,4 Avery N Gilbert,3 and Leslie B Vosshallcorresponding author1,2

This study proves the racial hierarchy of black-brown-white-asian also exists in olfactory senses.

Consistent with earlier reports on differences in olfactory perception between racial groups [33], there were differences in our measure of olfactory acuity between races (median ranks: African-Americans 149; Asians 231; Caucasians 225) (Figure ​(Figure4d),4d), but not between Hispanics (median rank: 186) and Non-Hispanics (median rank: 201) (Figure ​(Figure4e).4e). Other demographic factors such as marital status or education did not correlate with olfactory acuity (data not shown; see the “demographics” tab of Additional file 1 for tabulation of these demographic data).


However, there were some dramatic differences between demographic groups. Statistically significant differences in pleasantness perception are shown in Figure ​Figure8.8. For 18 of the 134 stimuli the pleasantness rating differed significantly between African-American and Caucasian subjects (Figure ​(Figure8a).8a).


We showed that general olfactory acuity correlates with age, gender, smoking habits, body type, and race. In addition we have identified over 100 cases in which sensitivity to a specific odour, or the intensity or pleasantness perception of a specific odour, differed significantly between demographic groups. We also studied in detail how the perceived odour quality of three odours differs between demographic groups.