The sound of smell: crossmodal correspondences between sound and odor

Crossmodal correspondence plays a subtle yet important role in how we perceive and interpret our environment. Sounds and smells, in particular, might co-occur in our daily lives (e.g., spraying a perfume), yet their interaction remains underexplored. Understanding how these modalities interact can inform multisensory design and sensory marketing. This study investigates whether affects indirectly mediate crossmodal associations between sounds and odors.

We conducted three experiments. In Experiments 1 and 2, 61 and 60 participants respectively classified 80 sounds and 24 olfactory ingredients according to eight affective categories: Apathy, Depression, Happiness, Irritation, Relaxation, Sensuality, Stimulation, and Stress. In Experiment 3, 62 participants directly matched 5 groups of sounds to 5 groups of odors, selected based on the results of the first two experiments. This 3rd phase allowed us to compare direct crossmodal associations with the indirect affective mappings from the first two experiments.

Experiments 1 and 2 showed that certain affects, particularly Stimulation, Stress, and Irritation, were more induced, while others such as Sensuality and Depression showed weaker or more ambiguous patterns. In the direct matching phase (Experiment 3), some affects (e.g., Stimulation, Relaxation) may have predicted crossmodal associations, while others (e.g., Apathy, Happiness) were more ambiguous.

The results support the hypothesis that affects may function as an indirect link between sound and smell.