Christopher Pilny for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
If you’ve ever wondered why you enjoy the smell of your own farts, here’s your answer.
According to a video posted by AsapScience, the reason lies in our biological hardwiring. Humans like what they’re familiar with, whether it be a song, a book, a food dish or, well, their own farts. And seeing that the average human farts 10 times a day, we have a lot to be familiar with.
It also helps that our farts are completely unique to us. This is thanks to the one-of-a-kind bacterial concoction we each possess in our digestive and gut tracts. Gas is produced when these bacteria work on what we’ve consumed, and when it’s mixed all together gives us, for lack of a better term, a distinct fart fingerprint.
As for not liking other people’s farts? The video explains that it boils down to an evolutionary defense mechanism. By this, we mean that everyone is biologically hardwired to survive, and a big part of surviving is avoiding things that could potentially harm us–i.e. poisonous creatures, raging volcanoes, and anyone named “Lee Harvey Oswald.”
Things that smell bad could also potentially harm us. Thus, when we smell other people’s farts, and aren’t “familiar” with them, it automatically sends up red flags. And for good reason.
“There are many reported cases of farts spreading Streptococcus pyogenes, a pathogen that can cause tonsillitis, scarlet fever, heart disease and even flesh-eating disease,” the video points out.
Why? Because mixed in with the gases associated with farts are particles of fecal matter–or poop. And poop is a carrier of all sorts of hazardous things. As if you we even needed to state that.
The video goes on to discuss several other fart-related phenomena–why mother’s don’t mind the smell of their baby’s poop as much as others; why “silent but deadly” farts cause us to freak out when we smell them; and why conservative individuals are more disgusted by fart smells than their adventurous counterparts.
Check it out for yourself. How do you think your farts smell?
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