Is it trust or is it risk? Chemosensory Anxiety Signals Affect Women's Negotiation

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108114

Commentary

Because how chemosensory anxiety signals affect the physiology of perceivers is well documented, but the effects on explicit social behavior are not, this study was conducted to investigate the effects of chemosensory anxiety signals on trust and risk behavior in men and women.

The study was collected from axillary sweat samples from 22 men during their experience of social anxiety and during a sport control condition. In a series of five studies, chemosensory stimuli were presented via an olfactometer.

They were also analyzed from a study of 214 participants acting as investors in a negotiation task, either interacting with a fictional human co-player (trust state) or a computer program (risk state).

The results can show that chemosensory anxiety signals reduce trust and risk behavior in women. In men, this effect was not observed.

The results suggest that chemosensory anxiety is contagious and preferentially transmitted to women.