ABSTRACT

We now come to modalities with a much lower profile in studies of human communicating: smell and touch. It is understandable that vision and audition, so important in human interaction, should attract the prime attention. Smell and touch furthermore are not easy to study. Their precise application and relevance are even more elusive than those of sight or sound and insofar as organised processes of tactile and olfactory communication are detectable among humans, they are often below the level of conscious awareness. But the potential resources offered by touch, smell and, perhaps (overlapping with smell) taste, certainly deserve to be considered. As will emerge, both smell and, especially, touch play a much greater active role in human communicating than often recognised.