What’s that smell... it’s fear!

THE smell of fear may actually exist, according to a bizarre new study that involved testing the air in cinemas while viewers watched horror movies and comparing it to samples taken during screenings of other genres of film.

Humans excrete scores of different chemicals through breath and the skin, which are believed to act as subliminal signals – indicating for example, sexual attraction and aggression – but also, it seems, fear.

Scientists tested the air in cinemas for 100 different known compounds while a variety of films, including comedies, thrillers, and romance movies, were screened.

Nearly 10,000 people viewed the films, including The Hunger Games, Dinosaurs 3D and Buddy, while the researchers collected the gas emissions through ceiling vents every 30 seconds.

Results show that the smells did change with the films and scenes.

A spike in a compound called isoprene – also commonly found in eucalyptus – was triggered by highly emotional or frightening scenes.

The researchers from The Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, and Gutenberg University, Germany, explained: ‘Isoprene is released by the body with greater muscle activity – probably because people move or fidget more when they are tense.’