The original thread appeared about two weeks ago and now has over 3.4K upvotes and around 5.6K numerous opinions, stories and debates, where, it would seem, literally every scent on Earth has found a place. And we, Bored Panda, are now happy to make a selection of the most interesting and fascinating answers from this thread for you.

It’s quite interesting that the importance of smells for our perception of the world has always been emphasized in culture. For example, in one of the Harry Potter books, the heroes, among the aromas that a freshly brewed love potion exudes for them, clearly distinguish the smell of their crushes' hair. By the way, it’s absolutely rightly noted - among the answers from our selection there are those where people reminisce about, for example, how their spouse’s hair smells.

For many people, by the way, happiness is firmly associated with the smells of their favorite pets, dishes or drinks. For example, freshly brewed coffee. Just imagine: early morning, you are standing by an open window, somewhere high above the waking city, holding a cup of the strongest espresso in your hands, and your lovely cat is rubbing against your legs...

And perhaps the inevitably rolling day will later overwhelm you with a wave of troubles, the cat will miss the litter box again, and coffee on an empty stomach will cause heartburn... All this will happen too, but for now, in this particular moment, you experience an incomparable feeling of happiness. Only you, only this moment - and let the whole world wait!

Damn it, this is all poetry, but in fact, like literally everything in this world, the influence of smells on us has a clear logical explanation. And it's all about the effect of so-called associative learning, where our brain clearly links this or that scent with an event happening in our life, with our individual perception and experience.

“The linked event is then able to elicit a conditioned response for the original situation. In olfaction, the process can be understood as follows: a novel odor is experienced in the context of an unconditioned stimulus, such as a surgical procedure in a hospital, which elicits an unconditioned emotional response, such as anxiety,” Scientific American quotes Rachel S. Herz, an assistant professor of psychology at Brown University.

“The odor then becomes a conditioned stimulus for that hospital experience and acquires the ability to elicit the conditioned response of anxiety when encountered in the future. This mechanism explains both how odors come to be liked or disliked, as well as how they can elicit emotions and moods.”

In any case, no matter how dry and scientific it may sound, each of us has our own idea of ​​what happiness smells like and what exactly this happiness represents for us. It's a pity, of course, that the list you read in full and the upvote you give doesn't have its own special smell - otherwise I’d definitely say that this is one of the reasons for me to be happy. Be that as it may, now please feel free to share your own opinions in the comments as well.