most of the front row had their hands in the air. Forty-five seconds later, three-quarters of the audience were waving at him.
Slosson provided few details about his experiment, and so it barely rises above the level of anecdote. But on the evening of June 12, 1977, viewers of Reports Extra , a late-night British news show, became the unwitting subjects in a better-documented demonstration of the same phenomenon.
The show, which aired in Manchester, focused on the chemistry of sense. Toward the end of the program, viewers were shown a large cone with wires protruding from its point. The cone, they were told, represented a new form of technology—Raman spectroscopy. It would allow the station to transmit smells over the airwaves, from the studio straight into a viewer’s living room.
The cone contained a “commonly known odorous substance” that exuded a “pleasant country smell, not manure.” The scent had been building up in the cone for the past twenty-three hours. Sensors were recording the vibrational frequencies of the odor molecules. These frequencies could then be broadcast over the air. Viewers’ brains would interpret the frequencies as smells. Voilà! Smell-o-vision made real.
The station announced that an experimental smell transmission would occur in a few seconds. They asked viewers to report whatever they smelled, even if they smelled nothing at all. Then three, two, one . . . The screen changed to an oscilloscope pattern and a tuning noise was heard. The smell had been transmitted.
Within the next twenty-four hours, the station received 179 responses. The highest number came from people who reported smelling hay or grass. Others reported their living rooms filling with the scent of flowers, lavender, apple blossom, fruits, potatoes, and even homemade bread. A few smelled manure, despite this odor having been specifically excluded. Two people complained that the transmission brought on a severe bout of hay fever. Three others claimed 15 the tone cleared their sinuses. Only sixteen people reported no smell sensation.
What is one to make of this? As far as the TV station knew, they had not actually beamed a smell over the airwaves, unless they accidentally did so by some unknown mechanism. The transmission was an experiment devised by Michael O’Mahony, a psychology lecturer at Bristol University (now at the University of California, Davis). He conceded that some respondents may have been lying, but assuming the majority told the truth, he offered what happened as a successful demonstration of the power of suggestion. He speculated that the suggestion worked either by causing people to imagine a nonexistent smell, or by prompting them to focus on a previously unnoticed odor in their environment.
Recent research indicates that suggestion not only influences what we smell, but also how we react to smells. In 2005 researchers at Oxford University asked subjects to sniff two odors, one labeled cheddar cheese and the other body odor . Predictably, the subjects rated the body odor as significantly more unpleasant. However, the two smells were identical. Only the labels differed. Consider that the next time you’re enjoying some especially pungent cheese at a cocktail party.
4. SIGHT
The Invisible Gorilla
You think it’s going to be a test of your powers of concentration, and in a way it is. The researcher tells you he’s going to show you a video of two teams, one dressed in black and the other in white, each throwing a basketball around. He asks you to count the number of times the white team passes the ball.
The video begins. The team members bob and weave. It’s a little difficult to follow them. There are so many bodies moving around. But you think you’re doing a pretty good job. You count the passes: one, two, three, four . . .
After about a minute the researcher stops the tape. You’ve got your number ready. “Fifteen passes,” you tell him, but then he asks you something unexpected:
Slosson provided few details about his experiment, and so it barely rises above the level of anecdote. But on the evening of June 12, 1977, viewers of Reports Extra , a late-night British news show, became the unwitting subjects in a better-documented demonstration of the same phenomenon.
The show, which aired in Manchester, focused on the chemistry of sense. Toward the end of the program, viewers were shown a large cone with wires protruding from its point. The cone, they were told, represented a new form of technology—Raman spectroscopy. It would allow the station to transmit smells over the airwaves, from the studio straight into a viewer’s living room.
The cone contained a “commonly known odorous substance” that exuded a “pleasant country smell, not manure.” The scent had been building up in the cone for the past twenty-three hours. Sensors were recording the vibrational frequencies of the odor molecules. These frequencies could then be broadcast over the air. Viewers’ brains would interpret the frequencies as smells. Voilà! Smell-o-vision made real.
The station announced that an experimental smell transmission would occur in a few seconds. They asked viewers to report whatever they smelled, even if they smelled nothing at all. Then three, two, one . . . The screen changed to an oscilloscope pattern and a tuning noise was heard. The smell had been transmitted.
Within the next twenty-four hours, the station received 179 responses. The highest number came from people who reported smelling hay or grass. Others reported their living rooms filling with the scent of flowers, lavender, apple blossom, fruits, potatoes, and even homemade bread. A few smelled manure, despite this odor having been specifically excluded. Two people complained that the transmission brought on a severe bout of hay fever. Three others claimed 15 the tone cleared their sinuses. Only sixteen people reported no smell sensation.
What is one to make of this? As far as the TV station knew, they had not actually beamed a smell over the airwaves, unless they accidentally did so by some unknown mechanism. The transmission was an experiment devised by Michael O’Mahony, a psychology lecturer at Bristol University (now at the University of California, Davis). He conceded that some respondents may have been lying, but assuming the majority told the truth, he offered what happened as a successful demonstration of the power of suggestion. He speculated that the suggestion worked either by causing people to imagine a nonexistent smell, or by prompting them to focus on a previously unnoticed odor in their environment.
Recent research indicates that suggestion not only influences what we smell, but also how we react to smells. In 2005 researchers at Oxford University asked subjects to sniff two odors, one labeled cheddar cheese and the other body odor . Predictably, the subjects rated the body odor as significantly more unpleasant. However, the two smells were identical. Only the labels differed. Consider that the next time you’re enjoying some especially pungent cheese at a cocktail party.
4. SIGHT
The Invisible Gorilla
You think it’s going to be a test of your powers of concentration, and in a way it is. The researcher tells you he’s going to show you a video of two teams, one dressed in black and the other in white, each throwing a basketball around. He asks you to count the number of times the white team passes the ball.
The video begins. The team members bob and weave. It’s a little difficult to follow them. There are so many bodies moving around. But you think you’re doing a pretty good job. You count the passes: one, two, three, four . . .
After about a minute the researcher stops the tape. You’ve got your number ready. “Fifteen passes,” you tell him, but then he asks you something unexpected:
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