Yankee Candle is America’s most popular scented candle brand. It offers over 600 fragrances, all designed to fill your living room with holiday vibes. But a new study says that the company may not be immune to the rise of COVID-19, a rare, bacterial infection that can zap your sense of smell.
While it’s well known that people aren’t able to smell candles, that doesn’t mean that all scented products are safe. There are natural fragrances that offer similar benefits without the chemicals. And synthetic fragrances provide a higher scent throw.
But if you’re buying a scented product on Amazon, you might want to consider the fragrance you choose. Many one-star reviews mention the lack of scent.
This theory isn’t new, but researchers believe that the number of negative Amazon reviews of scented products could reveal the extent of anosmia in the population. In fact, a Stanford doctorate student spotted the trend during her study, and published a string of data visualizations in a 2020 Twitter thread.
During the last few months, complaints about the popular scented candles on Amazon have increased. The company has responded to a viral tweet suggesting that the reviews might be an indicator of the increase in COVID cases. However, a study by Nicholas Beauchamp, associate professor of political science at Northeastern University in Boston, suggests that the numbers don’t always agree.
Beauchamp’s analysis looked at more than 9,800 customer reviews of the four most popular Yankee Candles on Amazon. He used the Google Chrome extension to collect the reviews and then plotted them over a period of time.