The Color of Odors
Morrot, Brochet and Dubourdieu began by analysing the language wine experts use, and found that the smells they name are overwhelmingly things that share the colour of the wine in the glass: red fruits for red wine, and so on. That could be a convention of vocabulary, so they tested it. They took a white wine, coloured it red with an odourless dye, and gave it to fifty-four trained tasters, who described its smell using the vocabulary of red wine. Given a conflict between what the eyes reported and what the nose reported, the eyes won, and the tasters were not aware of discounting anything. The authors locate the illusion at the point where an odour is being put into words rather than at the point of perception itself. This vault cites it as one of the cleanest demonstrations that expertise does not protect a person from a cue they do not know they are using.
Morrot, Brochet and Dubourdieu began by analysing the language wine experts use, and found that the smells they name are overwhelmingly things that share the colour of the wine in the glass: red fruits for red wine, and so on. That could be a convention of vocabulary, so they tested it. They took a white wine, coloured it red with an odourless dye, and gave it to fifty-four trained tasters, who described its smell using the vocabulary of red wine. Given a conflict between what the eyes reported and what the nose reported, the eyes won, and the tasters were not aware of discounting anything. The authors locate the illusion at the point where an odour is being put into words rather than at the point of perception itself. This vault cites it as one of the cleanest demonstrations that expertise does not protect a person from a cue they do not know they are using.
Written from the abstract, Europe PMC.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
Morrot, G., Brochet, F., & Dubourdieu, D. (2001). “The Color of Odors.” Brain and Language, 79(2), 309-320.
Where we use it
- The Candle Never Changes, Why We Look
Reliability of this reference
The link below was matched against the publisher's record on title, first author and year, and all three agree.
The source
https://doi.org/10.1006/brln.2001.2493
DOI: 10.1006/brln.2001.2493