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If you had to, like, I mean had to, give up one of your senses.

So sight, smell, touch, hearing, taste.

Which one would it be?

I'll take a guess. Would it be smell?

Because a study conducted two decades ago, asked people how highly they rated their sense of smell, and that study found... The sense of smell was

compared to losing your little left toe, and losing your sense of smell was rated

equivalently to losing your little left toe. So rated not very highly at all?

That, by the way, is Dr. Rachel Hers.

She's a neuroscientist and psychologist.

And during the pandemic, when people all of a sudden were losing their sense of smell in large numbers,

she thought, now sounds like a good time to revisit that research.

We felt like, okay, like here's the moment where people are going to realize that their sense of smell is actually important.

So in 2021, Rachel surveyed over 400 people about how highly they valued their sense of smell compared to a whole range of other things.

Had people come to their senses and learn to love their

nose? Overall, participants, about 20% of people would rather give up their sense of smell

than their cell phone. Amongst college students in particular, 25%, so a quarter of all college

students would rather give up their sense of smell than their cell phone.

And amongst women across the board, about 50% of them would rather give up their sense of smell than their hair.

This is All In The Mind. I'm Sana Khadar.

Why do we seem to take our sense of smell for granted?

The people Rachel surveyed were selected at random. They hadn't necessarily lost their smell

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