Body Odor’s Effect On The Way You’re Treated

You might think that someone who reeks of BO would be treated poorly, but new research suggest otherwise. Researchers at the University of Leuven in Belgium reported that people were actually sympathetic towards smelly people.

One of the experiments involved participants smelling a stinky shirt and then describing what their attitudes toward the wearer of the shirt were. According to Pacific Standard, the researchers found that the sniffers felt pity toward the shirt's wearer. Other experiments showed that participants in the study were more generous toward people who smelled bad. I wonder what would happen if the researchers had to work next to the smelly person every day; I doubt they would feel as generous or as much pity.