Apparently, 'Old Person Smell' is real

[Claremonster]

'Old Person Smell': Study Confirms You Can Recognize Age By Scent

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobil...cent_n_1559378.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

Wait a minute. There's something unusual about the subway seat you just claimed. It's awfully warm, and a peculiar odor seems to hover in the air nearby—a stale, musty odor tinged with something as acrid as mothballs. You know this aroma: it's "old person smell."

Anecdotally, the unique scent of the elderly lingers wherever they live and in any confined spaces they have recently occupied, such as taxis and elevators. Many different cultures have recognized the phenomenon—the Japanese even have a word for it, kareishuu—but the biological truth of old person smell remains uncertain. In a new study, blindfolded volunteers reliably recognized the aroma of the elderly by sniffing sweat-soaked armpit pads, although they had a much harder time correctly matching pads to the young and middle-aged, and they were not able to make fine distinctions about age based on scent alone. Contrary to the popular notion that old person smell is disagreeable, volunteers in the new study rated the odors of the elderly as much less unpleasant and intense than those of the middle-aged and young. Combined with earlier research, the new findings suggest that people retain a latent ability to gauge someone's age based on their odor, a talent inherited from evolutionary ancestors that might be linked to the ways animals recognize the sick and dying.

 

[BostonTim]

Great.



Cheers, BostonTim

 

[mikiemo83]

Depends

 

[tehmackdaddy]

'Old Person Smell': Study Confirms You Can Recognize Age By Scent

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobil...cent_n_1559378.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

Wait a minute. There's something unusual about the subway seat you just claimed. It's awfully warm, and a peculiar odor seems to hover in the air nearby—a stale, musty odor tinged with something as acrid as mothballs. You know this aroma: it's "old person smell."

Anecdotally, the unique scent of the elderly lingers wherever they live and in any confined spaces they have recently occupied, such as taxis and elevators. Many different cultures have recognized the phenomenon—the Japanese even have a word for it...

"Uh...hochi-juhotchi???"

 

[Pyxis]

Posted via Mobile Device

 

[taltos]

Memo to self: Don't attend any gatherings which might attract a large group of old folks. I define old as 2 years older than me.

 

[Grumpy_Bottom]

Now we know how Claremonster tracks his prey in the dark

 

[Oswlek]

What bothers me is that some old guy has started sneaking into my house and wearing my clothes while I am at work. I can think of no other explanation for why they've started smelling like an old man.

 

[grog]

With old man smell comes old man strength.

Young people smell too. They smell like Axe. Sets my allergies off everytime.