Scientists from the University of Oxford and the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm presented 10 scents to 235 people from 9 different cultures around the world, and selected people from urban areas in the United States and Mexico; hunter-gatherer groups from the Southeast Asian rainforest (such as the Semaq Beri people from the Malay Peninsula in Thailand); fishing communities from Central America’s Pacific coast; as well as secluded farmers living in the South American mountains, as their sample sniffers. All agreed on the scent of fresh vanilla as their favorite.
