The Synesthesia Tree: Emotion-smell and emotion-taste synesthesia

Alternative names could be emotional-olfactory and emotional-gustatory (or emotion-olfactory and emotion-gustatory) synesthesia

Emotions – either the synesthete’s own emotions or those they perceive in other people – can trigger synesthetic concurrents of smell and taste. As with other types, in order for these perceptions to be considered synesthesia the sensations induced would be automatically perceived, they would correspond to a range of emotions habitually felt rather than being just a one-off occurrence, and the same smell or taste perception would be produced by the same emotion each time. They are both very uncommon types of synesthesia.

Emotion-smell

Emotions triggering a synesthetic smell concurrent has been reported as a response to both other people’s emotions and the synesthete’s own. In any case, it appears to be a very uncommon type of synesthesia: in his study of 1,143 synesthetes, Sean Day noted that only two of them reported having this type of experience (0.2%). Its characteristics are that the aromas perceived would be consistent (same emotion = same smell), and probably – as seems to be the norm in synesthesias with an olfactory concurrent – the smells would not necessarily be perceived every single time the trigger was present but only under certain circumstances, so they might perhaps be experienced on feeling or receiving the impression of a strong or important emotion, at a particular time when the synesthete is feeling more sensitive and receptive, etc.

Emotion-taste

This type of synesthesia appears to be just as rare as emotion-smell. According to Sean Day's study, 0.26% of synesthetes reported having it. The emotions triggering a gustatory concurrent can also be of two different types: the synesthete’s own emotions or those they observe in other people. In the cases I have found, the tastes are perceived in response to the synesthetes’ own emotions, and they are closely linked to the colours they also see or associate with these emotions, i.e. emotion-gustatory synesthesia coexists with emotion-colour synesthesia.

Here are some descriptions written by people with these two types of synesthesia:

Emotion-smell

Case 1: smelling one's own emotions:

This person gives the example of sometimes perceiving a consistent “cloying/sickly sweet” in response to a specific emotion. In the particular instance they describe, it is interesting to note that writing in their notes app journal makes them focus on the emotion in question, and it seems to be this sudden close focus on the emotion itself that produces the automatic smell response:

“One particular example, I have a sort of journal in my notes app and at one point while feeling bad about something that could only be described as a gut twisting feeling of instinctual wrongness and disreality, I recounted that I’d felt it before and described it as “that same smell, that same feeling”.

And since back then I didn’t know that other people didn’t just casually smell their own bad/complicated emotions."

They go on to describe the types of odour paired with more negative feelings, which are those that more noticeably trigger the smells, although it is clear that they also have milder experiences with all kinds of emotions:

"I think I can say that for a lot of the weird/bad feelings, just some underlying sickness in the scent they carried. The type of smell that would make you yourself feel sick when faced with both the emotion and the scent in tandem.

It's a weird thing cause I can't really describe the smells but I can't really describe the emotions they came with, either. Bad feelings usually smell worse/more distinct, so I remember them better, but I don't really know if I've smelled positive emotions before.”

(Source: Comments on this post on the Synesthesia subReddit. 2023.)

Case 2: Smelling other people's emotions

Here are two people who describe smell responses to perceived emotion:

“Emotions have weird smells to me. Not my own emotions, but the emotions of others. A content and generally happy person smells like chicken. Live chickens that have been rained on.

Anger smells like a fresh set of new shoes.”

(Source: This post on the Synesthesia subReddit. 2020.)

“My dad [has] smells for emotions, so he can tell when I’m sad as he smells the sea and when I´m happy he smells wood.”

(Source: a comment on this website. 2018.)

Another synesthete lets us in on part of their range of consistent and very specific smell perceptions in response to the emotions of those around them. It is interesting to note how the strength of the emotion they are perceiving enhances their synesthetic response and how it is also determined and nuanced by some other factors, and all these aspects make it a particularly rich and insightful example of emotion-smell synesthesia:

“Sadness or depression smells like salt water but a bit more musty. Stress and violence smells like rotting flesh and fear smells more chemical and sweaty. But it usually depends from person to person how intense their emotions are and what their general body odor is as it's always slightly different from person to person.

But I must say I can smell stress and violent urges the best from them all. It's a rather unpleasant one tho.”

(Source: This comment in response to a question I asked about this type of synesthesia on the Synesthesia subReddit. 2025)

Emotion-taste:

The following descriptions are of the taste impressions of three different synesthetes who engaged in an online discussion about their perceptions. Note that their responses are idiosyncratic, i.e. they can be very different for each particular synesthete, which is of course a typical feature of all synesthesia types. I have to say I find the simple beauty of these descriptions fascinating, as neurological synesthesia seems to mix with literary synesthesia in their natural, heartfelt words.

Anger:

“Anger tastes like iron and dust.”

“Anger for me tastes like cayenne pepper.”

Happiness:

“Happiness tastes like soap and the color yellow”

“Happiness is blue and tastes like oranges.”

“Happiness tastes like yellow for me too, as well as sweet like a marshmallow.”

Sadness:

“Sadness tastes like the smell of rain and cotton.”

“Sadness is black and tastes like licorice.”

(Source: This post and comments on Reddit/Synesthesia. 2020.)

Here are some related types of synesthesia you might be interested in reading about: