Learn about emotions in online reviews; how flowers smell in space; and how water efficiency affected human evolution. Emotions matter more than ratings when it comes to online reviews by Kelsey Donk “Emotional” reviews predict business success, new study shows. (2021). Northwestern.edu. https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2021/04/emotional-reviews-predict-business-success-new-study-shows Rocklage, M. D., Rucker, D. D., & Nordgren, L. F. (2021). Mass-scale emotionality reveals human behaviour and marketplace success. Nature Human Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01098-5 Roses Smell Different In Space—And You Can Smell Like Them Too by Ashley Hamer Space Rose Pleases the Senses | NASA Spinoff. (2002). Nasa.gov. https://spinoff.nasa.gov/spinoff2002/ch_1.html Space Scents | Science Mission Directorate. (2002). Nasa.gov. https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2002/18dec_scents Frequent Questions: The Many Versions of Shiseido Zen. (2010, January 31). Blogspot.com. http://perfumeshrine.blogspot.com/2010/01/frequent-questions-many-versions-of.html Impulse Perfumes And Colognes. (2020). Fragrantica. https://www.fragrantica.com/designers/Impulse.html Human bodies use up to 50% less water than our primate cousins, which may have helped us spread throughout the globe by Cameron Duke Humans evolved to be the water-saving ape. (2021). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-03/du-het030221.php Pontzer, H., Brown, M. H., Wood, B. M., Raichlen, D. A., Mabulla, Audax. Z. P., Harris, J. A., Dunsworth, H., Hare, B., Walker, K., Luke, A., Dugas, L. R., Schoeller, D., Plange-Rhule, J., Bovet, P., Forrester, T. E., Thompson, M. E., Shumaker, R. W., Rothman, J. M., Vogel, E., & Sulistyo, F. (2021). Evolution of water conservation in humans. Current Biology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.02.045 Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer — for free!
Learn about emotions in online reviews; how flowers smell in space; and how water efficiency affected human evolution.
Emotions matter more than ratings when it comes to online reviews by Kelsey Donk
Roses Smell Different In Space—And You Can Smell Like Them Too by Ashley Hamer
Human bodies use up to 50% less water than our primate cousins, which may have helped us spread throughout the globe by Cameron Duke
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer — for free!
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/roses-smell-different-in-space
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about why emotions matter more than ratings when it comes to online reviews; how flowers smell different in space; and new research that suggests that how our bodies use water may have played a huge role in human evolution.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
When you’re trying to decide on a product to buy or a restaurant to visit, customer ratings can be hard to trust. If you see five stars on thousands of different products and dozens of different restaurants, how do you choose between them? New research has an answer: ignore the stars and look for the emotion.
To solve this conundrum, a group of researchers from Northwestern and University of Massachusetts Boston designed four studies to analyze years of consumer reviews of movies, books, restaurants, and commercials, and compare those reviews to the subject’s actual success.
They found what we all kind of suspected: star ratings are overinflated. The average Amazon rating is 4.2 out of 5 stars. They found a similar trend on Yelp, and other research has found the same on Uber. All those positive reviews can’t be honest. The researchers call this the ‘positivity problem.’ Most reviews are positive, and not actually that trustworthy.
So unsurprisingly, their analysis found that high ratings were a weak indicator of success. That was true whether they were looking at 13 years of movie reviews, 20 years of book reviews, or two seasons of Super Bowl commercials. The only place ratings had any impact was in restaurant reviews: there, a higher average star rating did predict a greater number of table reservations.
But one thing overshadowed star ratings in every single case: how emotional the review was. The researchers used computational linguistics to evaluate the language used in each review and assess its level of emotionality. The more emotional the item’s reviews, the more success it had. Emotional reviews predicted greater box office success for movies, more sales in 93 percent of book genres, more Facebook follows for companies behind Super Bowl commercials, and more reservations at restaurants.
So, what do they mean by emotionality? Here’s an example: a positive but not emotional review of a restaurant might read, “This restaurant is excellent, dinner was flawless.” Fine, but not emotional! A more emotional review might read: “I love this restaurant, it is absolutely wonderful.” Look for words like “enjoyable” over “impeccable,” “amazing” over “smart,” and phrases like “I loved it” rather than “it was worthwhile.” Trust other peoples’ emotions, and you’ll probably have a good time.
Shakespeare once wrote that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. But that turns out not to be the case for a rose in any other gravity. How do we know? It’s thanks to a whimsical experiment performed back in the late nineties. A fragrance company once sent a rose into space to see what it smelled like — and got a new fragrance ingredient out of the deal.
Back in 1998, the company International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF) had an interesting pitch for the Wisconsin Center for Space Automation and Robotics, which was in charge of developing technology for NASA’s space-based plant research. They wanted to fly a rose into space to see if microgravity changed the way the plant produced its familiar scent. Scientists already knew that microgravity changes the way plants grow and live, but nobody had ever looked at its effects on the fragrant compounds that a flower produces.
In order to learn more, the NASA center modified an existing space-based plant research facility to make it possible for astronauts to sample and analyze essential oils from flowers. Then, they sent a miniature rose plant into orbit on the space shuttle Discovery.
Everyone expected the space roses to smell at least a little different, since there wasn’t enough gravity to keep the rose’s oils in its stem. That difference could lead to thousands of different chemical combinations. But the results surpassed even the most optimistic predictions. The scent the rose produced in the end was astonishingly different. While on Earth, this type of rose produces a fresh, green rosy scent. Up in space, the plant produced fewer oils, but what it did produce smelled less green and more floral.
Scientists collected these new essential oils and brought a novel and decidedly otherworldly scent back to Earth.
That’s not the end of the story. IFF bottled and commercialized this new fragrance note, and at least two fragrance companies have used it in their formulations. One is Shiseido Zen 2000, and the other is a version of Impulse body spray from Unilever. Both contain whiffs of the space rose, but both, unfortunately, have also been discontinued. But who knows? Maybe a savvy collector can find a vintage bottle and get a whiff of that space rose for themselves.
Humans share a lot of DNA with chimpanzees and bonobos. So while there are tons of similarities, the few differences can be a pretty big deal. Humans have bigger brains, walk upright, and in most cases are much less hairy. As it turns out, humans are also more water efficient, and this has huge implications for our evolution as a species.
Your body is mostly water, but it’s important to remember that you’re only really borrowing that water. You’re constantly losing it as you sweat and go to the bathroom, so it needs to be replenished.
A recent experiment in the Journal Current Biology measured our ability to hold onto our water. Specifically, they wanted to know exactly how much water we lose and replace compared to our closest relatives.
Their study included 309 humans with a wide range of lifestyles, from office workers to hunter-gatherers, and 72 apes living in zoos and sanctuaries.
For each participant, the researchers measured both daily water intake and excretion. They measured water content in both the food and drinks they consumed, and measured the water they lost through urination, the GI tract, and sweating.
When they added this all together, they found that humans go through about twelve cups, or three liters, of water on average per day. This might seem like a lot, until you consider that ape relatives of the same size went through nearly twice that much. This didn’t come down to activity level or climate, either — even when controlling for those factors, humans use 30 to 50 percent less water than our closest primate cousins.
This suggests that at some point after the human lineage branched from the rest of the apes, humans evolved to optimize water use. And we’re not sure how. For example, our metabolism requires less water per calorie consumed than the rest of the apes, and figuring out why is an area of ongoing research. The changes may be physical, too. Our pointy noses are better at retaining water than our ape relatives’ flatter noses, and that may have helped early humans retain more water with every breath.
These evolutionary innovations, along with our bigger brains, helped us survive longer in unpredictable situations. Other ape species are forced to live near water sources, while us humans were able to venture much farther from those lakes and rivers to expand into new territories.
The take-home message? Never go on a road trip with a chimp. They’ll want to stop constantly.
Let’s do a quick recap of what we learned today
[ad lib optional]
ASHLEY: Today’s writers were Kelsey Donk and Cameron Duke.
CODY: Our managing editor is Ashley Hamer, who was also a writer on today’s episode.
ASHLEY: Our producer and audio editor is Cody Gough.
CODY: SMASH THAT LIKE BUTTON! Or at least, think about dropping us an ENTHUSIASTIC 5-star rating, if you haven’t already! Then, Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!