A Breath of New Life into Human Social Cognition

Sniffing has historically been considered an olfactory behavior because inhalation is a necessary step in odor perception. Growing evidence, however, has demonstrated that the display of sniffing surpasses the bounds of those contexts that are olfactory in nature. In this issue of Chemical Senses, Arzi, Shedlesky, Secundo, and Sobel demonstrate that humans mimic visually and auditory-observed sniffing, independent of experimentally applied olfactory sensory input. These findings raise important and exciting questions about the possible roles of sniffing in the social context and highlight the need for chemosensory researchers to reconsider the significance of sniffing.