Take A Whiff! Illinoisans Say This Is The Best Smell In The World

Before reading on, did you take a guess as to which scent Illinois residents chose as the best smell in the world?

Of course you did. So did I. And, to be completely honest, I was wrong. I'm predicting that your your guess was a bit off, too.

The woman in the photo might not be smelling anything. She looks like she's smelling something, but that could also be the face of a grandmother who just accidently stomped on a Lego that was left on the kitchen floor.

Back To Your Guess For What Illinoisans Chose As The Best Smell In The World...

Let's look at 3 popular guesses for the world's best smelling things. Do you think the answer is:

Freshly baked bread

Bacon

Or, popcorn.

If You Went With "None Of The Above," Congratulations! Our Winning Fragrance Is None Of Those Things (Think Ice Cream And/Or Fruit)

The Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet in Sweden set out to find out if people all over the world like the same smells, and are turned off by the same smells. It turns out that we do and are, with some minor cultural differences.

When I ran a search for some random lists of the best smell in the world, I consistently saw things like this:

• Bread
• Popcorn
• Bacon
• Barbecue
• Rain
• Campfires
• Chocolate
• Freshly cut grass
• New Books
• Cookies
• Apple Pie

I was a bit surprised to see "fresh gasoline" on several lists, along with "new car smell," and "expensive leather." However, none of those are Illinois' and the world's favorites.

Illinois' And The World's Favorite Smell Is Also A Word Used To Describe Something As Being Plain, Boring, Or Routine

Of all the scents that test subjects sampled and rated in the the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet study, the overall favorite was vanilla. Coming in second place was this:

Study participants rated vanilla to be more pleasant, regardless of cultural differences, than the fragrance of second-place finisher ethyl butyrate, which has a peach-like scent.

When it comes to the smells we hate, we all pretty much share similar thoughts. Here are three of our least favorite scents:

Mostly people considered isovaleric acid, which is found in cheese, soy milk, apple juice, and foot sweat, to be the worst odor.

Also, my own personal research shows that people who picked "campfire" as their favorite scent have apparently never been seated around the wrong campfire: