The smell of fear

Telegraph:

Researchers have found that chemical signals emitted by the body in sweat when scared really can be picked up by others and can trigger fear in their brains.

The discovery may help to explain why individuals with phobias such as a fear of flying can infect others who normally exhibit no such worries.

The study by Stony Brook University in New York found people who are scared give off "pheromones" - hormones - that subconsciously trigger parts of the brain associated with fear.

They concluded that fear could be "contagious", but said it was too early to say whether the brain triggers actually resulted in people being scared.

The researchers taped absorbent pads to the armpits of 40 volunteers about to do their first ever sky-dive.

They collected the sweat produced as the volunteers plummeted to earth and then asked a second group of volunteers to breath the fear-soaked samples alongside some fear-free sweat.

The second group's brain activity was monitored, using a scanner, as they smelled the samples and they displayed more activity in the brain's fear centres when they were exposed to the skydivers sweat.

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There is more.

I thought the story was going to be about the smell of people losing control of their bladder when frightened. That may be another level of fear.