Children should be given more opportunities to explore and understand the world through their sense of smell, according to a leading historian of aromas, who believes “olfactory education” could improve wellbeing and encourage greater empathy.
Dr Will Tullett, a historian at the University of York, argues that modern life has gradually changed the way people experience smell. Pollution can damage our ability to detect odours, while everyday products — from margarine and car interiors to household furnishings — are often stripped of their natural scents and given artificial fragrances instead.
That raises an intriguing question, he says: are we becoming less capable of distinguishing between smells because so many of the scents around us are synthetic?
Tullett believes schools could play a role in reversing this trend.
“I would love a world where at primary and secondary school people are taught to engage their noses,” he says, suggesting that simple smell exercises could also be carried out at home.
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Building a vocabulary for smells
One way to develop our sense of smell is simply to use it more often.
Tullett points to sommeliers as an example. They deliberately expose themselves to a wide range of aromas, visiting markets and smelling different foods and ingredients. The aim is not merely to identify a smell, but to build a library of experiences that allows different aromas to be compared.
The more smells people encounter, he argues, the more references they have when trying to describe something unfamiliar.
Such awareness could also help people understand their own emotional responses. Why does the smell of a particular food, perfume or place make us feel safe or nostalgic? And why might exactly the same aroma provoke a completely different reaction in someone else?
Your nose can tell you more than the date on the packet
A stronger sense of smell could have practical benefits, too.
Tullett highlights food safety as one example. Smell can offer clues about whether food is fresh or has spoiled, potentially providing information alongside — rather than simply relying on — printed use-by dates.
There may also be an important connection between smell and mental wellbeing. Research has linked the ability to experience and enjoy smells with our quality of life, while losing the sense of smell can be associated with depression, anxiety and other difficulties.
Yet Tullett rejects the idea that people simply don’t care about smell.
When people are asked about aromas, he says, they often have remarkably vivid memories to share. The problem may be that they have not been encouraged to talk about those experiences or given the vocabulary and confidence to describe them.
Smell can unite us — but it can also divide us
Tullett’s forthcoming book, Sniff: A History of Smells, also challenges another common assumption: that the past was simply much smellier than modern life.
“The past didn’t stink any more or less than the present,” he says. “It just smelled different.”
That distinction matters because smell has frequently been used to define — and discriminate against — other people. Tullett points to examples ranging from landlords making assumptions about tenants from particular ethnic backgrounds because of cooking smells to proposals that could have criminalised rough sleepers for producing “excessive” odours.
Instead of instinctively deciding that a smell is disgusting or unpleasant, he argues, people should consider why they feel that way and where those associations came from.
Greater awareness of our own reactions could, in turn, make us more understanding of other people’s preferences.
“A thoughtful sniff,” in Tullett’s view, could therefore become a way of understanding ourselves and the people around us rather than creating divisions.
The smells that will define our age
Smells are also closely tied to particular places and periods in history. Tullett suggests that future generations might associate 21st-century Britain with the distinctive aromas of hand sanitiser, wildfires and polluted water.
Even familiar smells could take on new meanings as the environment changes.
The scent of a wood fire may traditionally evoke warmth, comfort and nostalgia. But as wildfires and environmental crises become more familiar, the smell of burning vegetation could increasingly trigger fear rather than fond memories.
Perhaps, then, teaching children to “engage their noses” is about more than identifying aromas. It could help them become more observant, articulate and self-aware — while encouraging them to question the assumptions they attach to the smells of the world around them.