One of the tested childhood scents, bubblegum, was considered the most familiar but also the most nostalgic, eliciting higher self-esteem, social connection, optimism, and inspiration

Psychological Implications of Nostalgic Scents of Childhood. Eirini Petratou, Nasia Paradisi, Odysseas Diamantis, Anastasios Stalikas. Psychology, Vol.11 No.12, December 2020. DOI: 10.4236/psych.2020.1112129

There is wide-ranging literature on the emotional effects of odors but, so far, little focus on scents that evoke nostalgia and their psychological functions. This study examines the effects of nostalgia-induced scents, more specifically what are the psychological implications of scents from childhood that evoke nostalgia. The test participants sampled five childhood scents, rating each scent as to the extent to which they were familiar and elicited nostalgia and positive emotions. The study found that one of the tested childhood scents, bubblegum, was considered the most familiar but also the most nostalgic, eliciting higher self-esteem, social connection, optimism, and inspiration. Our research findings on olfaction contribute to the existing small body of experimental research on olfactory nostalgia and facilitate the understanding of the psychological implications, triggers and affective response linked with nostalgia-induced scents.

Keywords: Positive Psychology, Nostalgia, Childhood Scents, Senses, Positive Emotions

5. Discussion

The results of the study provide empirical support for the fact that childhood scents can trigger nostalgia and that there are scents that evoke significantly higher nostalgia than others—bubblegum, cotton candy (see Figure 2). Also, the analysis revealed that the scent that elicited the highest nostalgia, bubblegum, (see Figure 2) triggered the highest olfactory memory (see Figure 1) showing the strong linkage between nostalgia and memory activation through olfaction (Chrea et al., 2007).

Furthermore, the study confirms the psychological functions and particularly the positive impact of scent-evoked nostalgia (Chrea et al., 2007). Specifically, the study shows strong, positive correlation between nostalgia and self-esteem, optimism, social connection and inspiration (see Table 4) (Reid, Green, Wildschut, & Sedikides, 2015).

5.1. Limitations and Future Directions

The results of this study should be considered directional since there are various factors that should be taken into consideration for future research. For example, the vast majority of the sample was women (M_age = 21).

Another important factor to consider is the category of scents that were used. It would be interesting to explore psychological functions of a broader variety of scent categories and investigate if there are differences in their psychological implications factoring in gender, age or other individual differences (i.e. personality traits).

5.2. Implications

Overall, the study could have several scientific and clinical applications. For example, mental health professionals could use childhood scents that trigger nostalgia in their interventions with clients—during the therapeutic process—to access difficult memories for trauma processing or for certain exercises of calming down (Torre, 2008).