How can so many otherwise sensitive people expose others to their body odours? Surely, they must not know that they (or their clothes) are foul-smelling, or they would do something about it. Right?
Right. Compared to most animals, human don't have an acutely developed sense of smell. According to Dr Pat Barelli, Secretary of the American Rhinologic Society, 'The olfactory nerve easily becomes "fatigued" in areas where there are odours.' In order not to be overloaded with information, your nervous system decides not to even try being 'bothered' by your body odour unless it changes dramatically. Whether you regularly smell like a spring bouquet or like last night's table scraps. you're unlikely to notice-even if you're sensitive to the body odour of other people.
Dr Morley Kare, Director of the Monell Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, adds that this fatigue principle applies to many of the senses. Workers at automobile factories must learn to block out the sounds of machinery or risk being driven insane.
And students often can't discriminate the taste of different dishes that are served in their school cafeteria. Of course, this phenomenon might be explained by the fact that all the cafeteria dishes do taste alike, but we would need a government grant to confirm the thesis.
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