Women can "smell" thin to men.

• Position: Aroma - Brief Article

A decade-long study conducted by the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago found that men perceived women to be 12 pounds lighter when they were wearing a pleasant, floral-spicy perfume. Alan R. Hirsch, lead investigator, explains that "We didn't actually reduce the weight of women who wore the aroma, but, rather, caused men to believe she weighed less."

After testing of over 100 different odor combinations including butterscotch, cigarette smoke, grapefruit, and pepperoni pizza, the floral-spice combination was the only odor found to work. "It acts as the olfactory equivalent to vertical lines," says Hirsch, noting the visual illusion of reduced girth while wearing a blouse designed with up-and-down stripes. "In earlier studies, we found that sniffing the odors of green apple, banana, and peppermint...