Cultural Evolution of Perfumes since 1900

Abstract

Perfumes are cultural artifacts and works of sensory art, composed from a finite, recombinable palette of notes that together evoke a distinctive scent impression. Here, we assemble the largest perfume corpus compiled to date, spanning multiple independent databases from 1900 to 2024, and study its evolution through a multidisciplinary computational framework. We first characterize perfumes by properties such as complexity and novelty using crowd-sourced data, finding that compositions have grown more minimalist in their scent profiles, yet more novel in their note combinations, a transition that began in the 1990s. Next, we construct copy-lineage networks and examine how notes are selected across successive time windows. We show that although imitation is pervasive, a growing share of notes drifts free of selection, and original creations retain a measurable quality premium, where they last longer, project further, and earn higher regard. Finally, we construct the collaboration network of master perfumers and show that a perfumer's creative style behaves as a social contagion, transmitted through collaboration and decaying with social distance. We discuss the principal forces shaping this evolution, including regulatory restrictions, cultural change, and the consolidation in the industry. Our findings position perfume as a culturally evolving system, akin to music and fashion, through which societies express and communicate hedonic sensory experiences.