The way we dress or carry ourselves has always been a means for us to express our personality, but according to a new study published in the European Journal of Personality, the way we smell can also reveal parts of ourselves to other people.

Polish researchers Agnieszka Sorokowska, Piotr Sorokowski, and Andrzej Szmajke of the University of Wroclaw believe that by smelling our clothes or just getting a whiff of our body odor, other people can, to a certain extent, describe whether we are anxious or confident.

To back up the study, the researchers recruited 60 people (half men, half women) to wear a plain white t-shirt to sleep for three nights straight. They were expressly instructed not to use any kind of soap, perfume, or deodorant. For the duration of the experiment, they were also asked not to eat anything that might affect body odor. Prior to the experiment, the participants were also interviewed about their personality types.

After three nights, the clothes were then bagged and tagged in clear plastic. The researchers then asked 200 more volunteers to try their hand at guessing the personality types of the subjects who wore the t-shirts. While the results were not perfect, researchers were able to find enough evidence that support the theory when they compared the original personality interview with the reports of their sniffers. Those who were assigned to smell the t-shirts were more or less able to determine whether the wearer was anxious or not. They were also surprisingly adept at determining whether one is dominant or not when it comes to interacting with the opposite gender.

According to the researchers, the amount of sweat we release could have something to do with our personality traits. For most of us who never leave the house without spraying on a little bit of perfume or a deodorant, however, other people might have a harder time sizing us up.

(Photo source: sxc.hu)