article_snippet: Looking at someone who is overweight or obese can alter our sense of smell to make the scent of the world around us appear less pleasant, scientists have found.
article_snippet: Researchers discovered viewing images of fat people caused participants in a study to rate odour samples as smelling worse - even though Researchers were actually fragrance free.
article_snippet: Does looking at this image of an obese man on a bench conjure up a foul odour?
article_snippet: Surprisingly a new study by scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles also found that those who had a higher BMI themselves tended to give the scent samples a lower rating.
article_snippet: Dr Ayako Tomiyama, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, said: 'You wouldn’t think that not liking someone’s weight could then be seen in a totally different sensory modality. 'not liking someone
article_snippet: The researchers, whose work is published in the International Journal of Obesity, found that when images of overweight or obese people were displayed on the screen, participants gave worse ratings to the scent samples.
article_snippet: Writing in the International Journal of Obesity, the researchers, who are also presenting their results at this week's American Psychosomatic Society, said: 'their results showed that the substances were perceived to smell worse when the substances were paired with images of heavy individuals than when the substances were paired with images of thin individuals.
article_snippet: The researchers, whose work is published in the International Journal of Obesity say that subconscious disgust at obesity may be manifesting obesity in people's sense of smell . '
article_snippet: The effect was most strongly manifested by participants with higher BMIs' The researchers, whose work is published in the International Journal of Obesity claim their results could be a subconscious signal of disgust.
article_snippet: Previous research has shown that there is a connection between feelings of disgust and the perception of foul odours.
article_snippet: Previous research could also be associated with widespread assumptions that people who are overweight have problems with body odour.
highlights_snippet: Participants rated smells worse when Participants looked at images of fat people .
  
highlights_snippet: People who were overweight People who were overweight themselves judged the scents more harshly .
  
highlights_snippet: Psychologists say subconscious disgust at obesity may manifest as sense of smell .