Rachel Herz

Explores how psychology, neurology, and physiology influence food consumption and reveals techniques for improving one's relationship to food.

The Science Behind Our Relationship with Food

Why You Eat what You Eat

The author of The Scent of Desire examines the science behind the feelings of revulsion and disgust, describing where it originates in the human brain, what its initial purpose was and how it influences people's personalities and values. 20,000 first printing.

That's Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion

Shakespeare wrote that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. But if you cannot smell, does the rose lose its sweetness? The first and definitive book on the psychology of smell, The Scent of Desire traces the importance of smell in our lives, from nourishment to procreation to our relationships with the people closest to us and the world at large. Smell was the very first sense to evolve and is located in the same part of the brain that processes emotion, memory, and motivation. To our ancestors, the sense of smell wasn't just important, it was crucial to existence and it remains so today. Our emotional, physical, even sexual lives are profoundly shaped by both our reactions to and interpretations of different smells. Why do some people like a certain smell and others hate it? Is smell personal or cultural? How does smell affect our choices and our daily lives? Rachel Herz explores these questions and examines the role smell plays in our lives, and how this most essential of senses is imperative to our physical and emotional well-being. Herz investigates how our sense of smell functions, examines what purpose it serves, and shows how inextricably it is linked to our survival. She introduces us to people who have lost their ability to smell and shows how their experiences confirm this sense's importance by illuminating the traumatic effect its loss has on the quality of day-to-day living. Herz illustrates how profoundly scent and the sense of smell affect our daily lives with numerous examples and personal accounts based on her years of research. The wonders of our sense of smell are all explored in a compelling and engaging manner, from emotions and memory to aromatherapy and pheromones. For anyone who has ever wondered about human nature or been curious about the secrets of both the body and the mind, The Scent of Desire is a fascinating, down-to-earth tour of the psychology and biology of our most neglected sense, the sense of smell.

Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell

The Scent of Desire

Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion

That's Disgusting

Linda Bartoshuk

Jeremy M Wolfe

Keith Kluender

Dennis Levi

Why does the sky look blue? Why does sugar taste sweet? Fully revised and updated, this introductory, full-colour text is written by experts in each of the five senses who convey the excitement of the field to students, providing comprehensive descriptions of the science behind vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste.

Sensation and Perception

Why do some people like a certain aroma and others hate it? Is smell personal or cultural? How does it affect our choices and our actions? The Scent of Desire is the definitive psychological study of the importance of smell in our lives, from nourishment to procreation to our relationships with other people and the world at large. Located in the same part of the brain that processes emotion, memory, and motivation, this most essential of senses is imperative to our physical and emotional well-being. It was crucial to our ancestors' existence and it remains so today, profoundly shaping our emotional, physical, and even sexual lives. One of the world's leading experts on the psychology of smell, Rachel Herz investigates how smell functions, what purpose it serves, and how inextricably it is linked to our survival in this compelling, surprising, delightfully informative appreciation of the wonders of this sadly neglected sense.

“In this factual feast, neuroscientist Rachel Herz probes humanity’s fiendishly complex relationship with food.” —Nature How is personality correlated with preference for sweet or bitter foods? What genres of music best enhance the taste of red wine? With clear and compelling explanations of the latest research, Rachel Herz explores these questions and more in this lively book. Why You Eat What You Eat untangles the sensory, psychological, and physiological factors behind our eating habits, pointing us to a happier and healthier way of engaging with our meals.

Rachel Herz

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