Humans, like other animals, have an excellent sense of smell that can serve social communication. Although ample research has shown that body odours can convey transient emotions like fear, these studies have exclusively treated emotions as
categorical
, neglecting the question whether emotion
quantity
can be expressed chemically. Using a unique combination of methods and techniques, we explored a dose–response function: Can
experienced
fear intensity be
encoded
in fear sweat? Specifically, fear experience was quantified using multivariate pattern classification (combining physiological data and subjective feelings with partial least-squares-discriminant analysis), whereas a photo-ionization detector quantified volatile molecules in sweat. Thirty-six male participants donated sweat while watching scary film clips and control (calming) film clips. Both traditional univariate and novel multivariate analysis (100% classification accuracy;
Q
2
: 0.76;
R
2
: 0.79) underlined effective fear induction. Using their regression-weighted scores, participants were assigned significantly above chance (83% > 33%) to fear intensity categories (low–medium–high). Notably, the high fear group (
n
= 12) produced higher doses of armpit sweat, and greater doses of fear sweat emitted more volatile molecules (
n
= 3). This study brings new evidence to show that fear intensity is encoded in sweat (dose–response function), opening a field that examines intensity coding and decoding of other chemically communicable states/traits.
This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Olfactory communication in humans’.
A comparison of the World Health Organisation's HEAT model results using a non-linear physical activity dose response function with results from the existing tool
