Which Gender Has a Better Sense of Smell?
Overview
Objectives/Goals To test if females have a better sense of smell than males. Hypothesis: I think that females will have a better sense of smell and get more answers correct than the males. Methods/Materials My method was to create a hypothesis and then to test subjects and survey their results after they smelled each sample and record what they smelled. My materials used were 5 pharmacy jars, a variety of candies, paper around the jars, and test subjects. Results Consistently both boys and girls were able to determine the correct fragrances 74% of the time. Kids 10 and under smelled the fragrances the best overall. It appears the younger you are the better sense of smell you have. Depending on the fragrance different genders did better depending on the sample. Females did better on the cinnamon jelly beans, the chocolate coffee beans, and the popcorn jelly beans. However, the males did better on the peppermint Altoids and the bazooka bubble gum. Before I began my project I thought teenagers would be able to smell the best and that females would be able to smell better. But unfortunately I was incorrect on both. Conclusions/Discussion In my hypothesis I said that females would overall be more able to smell than males. But my hypothesis was proven incorrect. Females and males both were able to determine the correct fragrances 74% of the time. I also thought that 13 and 14 year old teens would be able to smell better than any other age. I was incorrect again. The 10 and under kids were better than the 13 and 14 year old teens and the 20 and older adults. But the teens did better than the adults. From my test results I found out the older you get the worse your sense of smell is the sense of smell is dependent on the sample being tested.
Summary statement
My project tests to see if females have a better sense of smell than males.
Help received
None
Competition history
- CSEF 2007
Resources
Related projects
CSEF · 2004
Does Gender, Age, or Smoking Habits Affect a Person's Sense of Smell?
CSEF · 2013
What Sense Is More Dominant: Taste or Smell?
CSEF · 2006
The Sense of Taste
CSEF · 2005
Smell Your Way to Better Grades
CSEF · 2012
Taste the Power of Smell
CSEF · 2011
Smell to Taste
CSEF · 2006
Is Our Sense of Smell Sensible?
CSEF · 2005
The Nose Knows the Taste
Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.
Browse more like this
Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects