11 juillet 2017
info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess
Léa Nehmé, « Contribution à l'étude du lien entre odeurs et couleurs: effet du lieu de résidence des répondants, des affects associés à l'odeur et de la méthodologie de test employée », HAL-SHS : sociologie, ID : 10670/1.umfi21
This doctorate aims to contribute to a better understanding of the link, several times demonstrated, between odors and colors. It is organized in 4 parts corresponding to 4 major studies carried out in different countries, France, Lebanon and Taiwan, as well as in different regions within the same country (urban Lebanon, rural Lebanon). The first study carried out in the three countries aimed at demonstrating the impact of culture on the construction of the odor-color link. The results obtained revealed a significant effect of the participants' place of residence on the construction of the link but also the predominant role of the "function of the odor" (food, cosmetics, industrial ...). The second intercultural study between France and Lebanon focused more specifically on the methodology used to carry out odor - color tests. Indeed, in the literature, two types of procedures are generally used: presentation of physical colors that the participant can see or absence of presentation of physical colors and the use of color names (blue, green, red, ...). The comparison of these two methods revealed an equally important effect between the procedure, the culture and the function of the odor on the odor-color association. The data also revealed that colors have the capacity of olfactory evocation. To better understand this phenomenon, we performed an fMRI study. This third study using fMRI showed that the olfactory evocation power of abstract color arrangements was different from that obtained from colored figurative visual representations. The cognitive processes involved in an olfactory evocation from colors arrangement, is more complex and multimodal involving olfactory, emotional, visio-spatial, language and memory processes. The final part of this Ph.D. examined how emotional evidenced by fMRI could interfere with the construction of the odor - color link. The study was carried out in France as well as in two rural and urban areas of Lebanon. The results showed that the affect associated with an odor influenced the odor-color link, but above all, that the preferential choice of certain affects was linked to the socioeconomic and cultural situation of the participant. This thesis is therefore a contribution to a better understanding of the link between odors and colors. It has demonstrated its complexity with a proven effect of the odor function in the country, the methodology used and the place of residence and socio-cultural level of the participant. However, it stresses the need for a multidisciplinary approach to understand even more precisely the whole workings