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Psychology Colloquia

10 October 2006

Title

"Fears, Flowers, Pheromones and Emotion"
 

Speaker

Jeannette M. Haviland-Jones, Ph. D. is Professor of Psychology at Rutgers --The State University of New Jersey. She has written extensively about emotional development and edits the Handbook of Emotion. Her research interests include infant to adult displays of emotion within families, gender differences and the organizing effects of emotion on thoughts. Most recent research includes the effect of the environment, particularly chemosensory signals, on human emotion, from flowers and smiles to pheromones and sexual displays to perfumes and stress.

For some background on Dr. Haviland-Jones' work, and as a preview of her upcoming presentation, please download her CV and one of her recent publications: "An Environmental Approach to Positive Emotion: Flowers."
 

Time & Venue

4:10pm, SS 356
 

Abstract

For more than 5000 years, people have cultivated flowers and used perfumes although there is no acknowledged reward for this costly behavior. However, in several studies we show that flowers and odorants are emotion “inducers” as much or more than pheromones. In Study 1, flowers, upon presentation to women, always elicited the Duchenne or true smile. Women who received flowers reported more positive moods 3 days later. In Study 2, a flower given to men or women in an elevator elicited more positive social behavior than other stimuli. In Study 3, flowers presented to elderly participants (65+ age) elicited positive mood reports and improved episodic memory. In Study 4, pheromones modified moods and affected sexual display behavior. In study 5, fragrances modified stress/fear responses. There is some theory that pertains to chemosensory signaling in non-human species. We have extended this to environmental stimuli. For some of the environmental effects we suggest that non-human signals may be rewarding to the species (even plant) that produces them because they have evolved to rapidly induce positive emotion in humans, leading to the dispersal or propagation of the non-human species (e.g. flowering plants}. This is a co-evolutionary approach to human emotion.

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last revised 27 September 2006

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