Smelling the Threatened Ones: Fear Body Odor Selectively Enhances Memory for Fear Faces

Barcelona, Spain · May 2026

Posters · Thinking & Remembering: Attention, Memory & Control

Miguel Benrós
William James Center for Research, ISPA – Instituto Universitário, Lisboa
Magda Saraiva
William James Center for Research ISPA - Instituto Universitário
Gün Semin
William James Center for Research, ISPA – Instituto Universitário, Lisboa
Nuno Gomes
William James Center for Research, ISPA – Instituto Universitário, Lisboa
Nuno Gomes
William James Center for Research, Departamento de Educação e Psicologia, Universidade de Aveiro

Abstract

In a preregistered within-subjects experiment, exposure to fear chemosignals enhanced spatial memory for fearful (vs. neutral faces) whereas exposure to rest sweat did not. This selective improvement suggests that fear chemosignals bias memory systems toward threat-relevant social information, highlighting how chemosignals interact with adaptive memory to prioritize biological significant cues.

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Smelling the Threatened Ones: Fear Body Odor Selectively Enhances Memory for Fear Faces

Abstract

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