“”
The lesson here is that smell plays a huge role in how we
interact with and interpret the world around us.
As animals, it stands to reason that we make sense of our
environment using the finely-honed senses we’ve evolved
over millions of years.
to a long-forgotten smell may trigger memories of what we were
doing and even the emotions we were feeling when we first
experienced this smell during childhood or adolescence.
This is known as olfactory memory and of all of our senses, it
is smell which is most closely linked with memory. This may
be explained because areas of the brain which help process
emotions and which help trigger emotions are closely linked with
the way we process smells.
Put simply, certain smells trigger certain positive or negative
responses. The connections between smells and emotions
are not universal, rather they are learned through experiences,
particularly childhood experiences. Olfactory memories stay
with us throughout our lives. They are the product of a deep
and primal link between emotion and associative learning.
E-liquid flavours like cookies and bubble gum are deeply anchored
in childhood – a period filled with formative and often highly
emotional experiences that shape who we become as adults.
Smell is a shortcut to reliving these moments from our past.
While our strongest olfactory memories come from our early
years, we continue to link new smells with experiences as we
grow older. One example of a negative association that many of
us experience as adults is when we catch a whiff of an alcoholic
drink that made us sick the past. The merest hint of it is often
enough to illicit a strong, negative, physical reaction.
A positive or negative odour association will also affect your
mood, which in turn influences how you think and act. Studies
have demonstrated that exposure to smells that we like can
improve creativity, creative problem-solving and even increase
our propensity to help others. They can also improve our
work performance.
Smells associated with our childhood are by far the most evocative
of all. While we may not always be consciously aware of it, the
appeal of e-liquid flavours from this time in our lives is hard-wired
in our brains. To dismiss cookie or bubble gum-flavoured e-liquid
as a malicious tool to get kids hooked on vaping is to dismiss
the millions of years of evolution that brought us to where we
are today.
VM15 | 111