A Study Found Dentists Can Smell Fear
You've probably heard that bees and dogs can smell fear. Here's another one we never thought we'd see added to that list . . . your dentist. (???)
A new study in Italy found dentists can sense when you're afraid just from the smell you give off. And the terrifying news is they might make more mistakes because of it.
Researchers had a bunch of dental students work on mannequins that were either in a normal t-shirt, or a shirt someone wore during a really stressful exam.
And when they worked on a mannequin that was in a stress shirt, they made significantly more mistakes that could have damaged a patient's teeth.
The researchers think the stress-sweat smell subconsciously made them more nervous. So in other words, stress might be contagious in some weird way.
Other studies have shown that our body odor does change when we're in stressful situations. But this is the first one to show it can affect the people around us, and mess with how well they perform a specific task.
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