Technology PR:
If you have ever failed to get the job or promotion you wanted, even though you had a great resume and had all the right qualifications and experience, then bad breath could be the reason.
As unlikely as it sounds, an ancient brain system, originally designed to help us identify rotten food, may have literally forced the interviewer to reject you. The moment his brain detected your bad breath, the decision not to hire you was made without him even realizing it.
Thats because bad breath contains a number of extremely smelly chemical compounds, including hydrogen sulfide, which smells like rotten eggs. It also contains methyl mercaptan and skatole, which smell like feces, as well as cadaverine, which smells like corpses, and putrescine, which smells like rotten meat. All of these smells have something in common: they evoke disgust, an extreme emotion designed to protect us from things that are unclean, inedible, or infectious.
When we feel disgust, our brain tenses muscles in our face called the levator labii. This produces the facial characteristics everybody recognizes as disgust (such as a scrunched nose and raised upper lip), which prevents foul odors or stray particles (from whatever caused the disgust) from entering the nose and mouth. Additionally, the brain creates an overwhelming urge to recoil or turn away from the source of disgust in an effort to further isolate the body from any possible contamination.
If you have bad breath, that reaction probably sounds familiar. Thats why people turn away, step back, or cover their nose and mouth when youre near them. They cant help it; it doesnt matter if they think youre the greatest person they ever met because, once their brain detects any of these smells, it recognizes them as a potential source of infection and literally forces their body to automatically recoil in disgust. In other words: Their brain recognizes your bad breath as a dangerous threat to their health and well-being!
In a job interview, while the interviewer is looking through your resume and asking you questions, his brain is screaming at him that you are a source of possible harm, and that he should get away from you as quickly as possible. Even if hes not consciously aware of it, the feeling of unease it causes gets transferred onto you, and it greatly influences his decision. The end result is usually the same though: Somebody else gets the job.
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