Fishy Smell Improves Critical Thinking
There’s a stereotype in the fishing world of the salty old captain, cynical and no-nonsense and capable of catching fish when no one else can. Well, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, all those fish the captain catches could have something to do with why he’s so cynical.
Munchies.vice.com reported that researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of Southern California carried out an experiment with students that suggests the smell of fish can trigger the brain into improved critical thinking. Common sense tells us that smells go a long way toward telling us what is safe to eat, but the study goes one step further to indicate fishy smells may actually trigger people to approach concepts and ideas with suspicion, leading to heightened scrutiny and better problem solving.
The old adage “something smells fishy” may have science behind it. In the experiments, students were presented with trick questions and problem solving exercises. Some students were exposed to the smell of fish oil during the experiments, and those students had much higher success rates than subjects who were tested with no fish smell present.
The research could go a long way toward explaining why every angler is a liar in another angler’s eyes. It also gives you a good excuse not to wash your hands after hitting the water before work in the mornings, just to get yourself in the right mindset for negotiating and problem solving.