The smell of emotion: How wine tasters' olfactory discrimination abilities are affected by mindfulness and thought suppression, a pilot study

Abstract

Measures of emotional response have been linked to sensory stimuli, with many studies reporting an effect of emotional state on sensory perception. However, no study has focused on the association between sensory perception and level of emotional awareness of one's own emotions, ranging from complete awareness to distance from the emotional experience. The objective of this study was to determine how the level of emotional awareness is associated with olfactory discrimination of wines through overall discrimination, and specifically through hedonic and olfactory intensity discrimination. Sixty-one wine connoisseurs were recruited in this pilot study. Differing levels of emotional awareness of one's own emotions were induced by two emotional regulation strategies with antithetical effects: mindfulness and thought suppression. A comparison control group was also tested. Discrimination abilities were measured before and after the emotional manipulation to compare their evolution between the three experimental groups. The results highlight an increase in overall discrimination and olfactory intensity discrimination for the mindfulness group, but a decrease in discrimination via hedonic judgment. Opposite results were observed for the thought suppression group, and no evolution for the control group. This study highlights an association between the tasters' level of emotional awareness of their own emotions and olfactory perception.