Why are we less aware of our own bad breath than a person standing close to us?

Question

Why are we less aware of our own bad breath than a person standing close to us?

In: 70

Answer 1

I think almost everyone is missing an important factor here.

You don’t smell it as well as people in front of you because the flow of air goes away from your nose. If you speak or breath out of your mouth, you are by definition not inhaling. Someone in front of you however will be inhaling the flow of air.

Try putting on a fitted mask, breath out of your mouth and breath in through your nose right after. You can definitely smell your breath this way.

Now as others have said, you get accustomed to everything once you are constantly exposed to it, but there is a very simple physical explanation that seems to get completely overlooked here.