Previous studies have shown that individuals exposed to emotional body odors report a partial reproduction of the affective state of the sender. The present study aimed to investigate if emotional body odors can increase the benefits of a mindfulness-based intervention in individuals with social anxiety symptoms (SAD), a mental disorder characterized by intense fear and avoidance of social situations. Thirty women (mean age: 22.2) with SAD were recruited and divided into one of three odor conditions (happiness or fear body odors or clear air). The study was conducted over two consecutive days. Each day, participants performed the mindfulness intervention while being exposed to one of the three odor conditions. At the beginning of day 2, participants were subjected to a social stress induction. Heart rate variability (HRV) was measure during the intervention. At the beginning and at the end of each day, anxiety was measured with the STAI scale. Results on anxiety level showed a significant interaction of odor and time both for day 1 [F(2,27) = 3.59, p = .041] and day 2 [F(2,25) = 6.04, p = .007]. On day 1, participants doing the intervention in the happiness condition reported a reduction of anxiety (happiness: p = .003, fear: p = .08, clean air: p = .99), whereas on day 2 both participants in the happiness and fear conditions reported a reduction of anxiety (happiness: p = .002, fear: p = .002, clean air: p = 1.00). Moreover, HRV analysis revealed a main effect of odor [F(2,25) = 3.9, p = .033]: HRV was higher during the intervention with happiness compared to fear odor (p = .026) indicating overall increasing well-being. The results give potential insight of how body odors may be utilized to support positive outcomes of psychological therapy.

FUNDING: European Commission Horizon 2020 research and innovation program [grant numbers 824153] to the POTION project, MIUR [Dipartimenti di Eccellenza DM 11/05/2017 n. 262] to the Department of General Psychology