I can't speak for other people, but I know why I like the smell. My parents own a road construction company, and I grew up around it. The smell of any petroleum product, diesel, gasoline, asphalt, etc., brings back happy memories for me--my dad sharing a piece of fruit from his lunchbox with me, riding the roller with my mom on a hot day, and many more. For me it's an association with something good.

A PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE I think you're correct to assume that there is a psychological (evolutionary, I'd say) explanation for why humans "crave" certain smells. People are often puzzled as to why they find the smell of things such as gasoline, car exhaust, glue, tar, burning rubber, and even matches, pleasant. Obviously, all of these substances emit an odour that causes the olfactory regions of our brain, by stimulating certain neurotransmitters, to react in a way that we experience as pleasurable. But why is that? What do all of these substances have in common? They are all composed of chemical compounds which are highly flammable. I'll return to this point later. To draw an analogy, consider humans' desire for sweet, salty, and fatty foods, our sex drives, or even particular phobias. Evolutionarily speaking, pre-modern humans' didn't have unlimited access to greasy and fatty foods the way we do today. So, in order for humans to survive, (or our genes, rather) we developed appetites for these necessities so that we would force ourselves to seek them out and consume enough to maintain our health. Modern western society has an abundance of these kinds of foods. So much so, in fact, that the "appetite" is no longer a necessity and can become somewhat like a disease. The cravings we required to survive thousands of years ago haven't just disappeared. Our genetic make up remains the same. We simply live to survive. But with unlimited access to what used to be a scarce necessity, the cravings are often not controlled properly and obesity can be the result. Our clever genes don't know that food is no longer scarce, and they continue to do their job - which is to survive and reproduce. The point I'm trying to make is that over the course of human evolution, certain traits (appetite for food, sex, etc) would be selected for. The people who carried these traits had a greater chance for survival and, ultimately, reproduction, passing the traits on to their offspring. On the other hand, those who did not develop and carry these traits were more likely to die off and not reproduce - the result being a population of people who will more than likely carry that trait. So, back to the smells. Many people tend to believe that the reason they find certain smells appealing is due to a childhood association, and in many cases that may very well be true. However, having a smell "remind" you of something pleasant (the smell of your old house, for example) is entirely different than "enjoying" a smell. Like I mentioned before, our genes' only goal is to reproduce itself. It does this by creating urges within our body that compel us to a certain end. It could be the desire to seek out a partner to have sex with, to back away from the edge of a cliff, to eat when hungry, drink when thirsty, reflexively draw back your hand from a hot object, or "know" when something is beneficial to our survival. An automatic nervous system reaction (fight or flight) occurs when we sense danger. It has been hard wired into our genetic coding. The reactions occur on a spectrum, of course, and sometimes can seriously hinder a persons daily functioning. For example, obsessive compulsive disorder can cause some individuals to constantly check and recheck certain things around the house to assuage a "feeling" or compulsion that something is amiss. It is a survival mechanism gone into "overdrive", for the lack of a better term. Another example could be paranoid schizophrenia, or even simple paranoia. It is entirely normal to be suspicious of those around you, for your own safety. It is a trait that would, no doubt, have been selected for. But in certain cases it can be damaging. I only mention these things to illustrate that fears and desires occur on a spectrum within the human species. Another example is the fear of heights. It can be very intense in some people, and to a certain extent, it should be. It would have been selected for. If your ancestors weren't afraid of that 400 ft cliff, they might have made off like lemmings and you'd never have been born. But you were, and you're *probably* scared of heights, too. As you should be. Even public speaking has an evolutionary root cause. It isn't the speaking that causes anxiety in people who suffer from the fear of it. Rather, it is standing alone in front of a group of people who you may not know very well, or entirely trust. 4000 years ago, that feeling would indicate that your territory is being ambushed, and your fight or flight reflexes go wild. (again, every emotion and response should be considered on a spectrum, some are affected more than others) But when you add a second speaker, or a partner for a class project, the anxiety wanes slightly, as it should. You now have half the chance of being the group target, and twice the force to protect yourself from "attack". It's called diffusion of responsibility. (for more info, google social impact theory) But I digress.... The fact that so many people enjoy the smell of gasoline, synthetic rubbers, and glue cannot be entirely associative. Each of these compounds are highly flammable and I don't think that's fully coincidental. For pre-modern humans to survive they needed very few things - food, drink, shelter, and warmth. To attain warmth, they had very few options - one of them being fire. To cook the meat they had killed or to boil water to drink without getting sick, they needed fire. Somewhere along the course of human evolution, our genes allowed us to recognize a potential source for easily creating fire by directing the chemical make-ups of these substances through smell to the olfactory centers in our brain. Thus creating a sensation of pleasure through the stimulation and release of neurotransmitters (such as dopamine, norepinephren, and seratonin) in the same way that it would occur during sexual intercourse, drug use, or exercise. The pleasure of the smell allowed us to *know* something was "good" about the source. Our genes were trying to tell us something....something to help us to survive. After all, that's all they care about. But how can you "know" anything about something without previously experiencing it? Good question. Why are so many people afraid of snakes and spiders? Even if they've never been harmed by one, many people are intensely afraid of snakes and spiders. That is a fact. I can't cite the experiment specifically (you could look it up), but it clearly demonstrates that knowledge of dangers and non-dangers can be passed from generation to generation without 1) ever communicating with your predecessors 2) seeing or experiencing the danger in any way. The study I'm referring to used a small breed of monkeys (the name of the species escapes me at the moment). The monkeys were reared entirely in isolation from any other monkeys and the outside world. What the researchers did was show each isolated monkey various pictures on a screen. The pictures varied from landscapes, to bunnies, to flowers, and snakes. Whenever the monkeys were shown a picture of a "non-threatening" scene, they would approach the picture with seeming curiosity. The interesting results from this study came when the monkeys were shown pictures of a poisonous snake that was native to the monkeys' place of origin, but a place they had never before been to. Recall that they had never even been outside or ever seen another monkey. But when they saw the picture of the snake, without fail, every time, the monkeys would jump, scream, and run around belting out "danger calls". Then the researchers replaced the picture with a rabbit, and the monkeys stopped. Again, returning to the smells. It is interesting to note that many people enjoy the smell of a nice campfire. Not only the smell, but being close to the flame is, in fact, pleasurable. The smell of wood burning is pleasant to most people. Burning paper is usually pleasant as well, and matches. But what about the bread you leave in the toaster for too long? It is not a very pleasant smell at all. It is also noteworthy that many people report smelling burnt toast before having an epileptic seizure. The same part of the brain is being stimulated in both cases. It's your brain telling you something is wrong. But why does wood burning smell good, while burning bread and your tuna casserole smell "bad"? Well, your brain "knows" what is being burned, and it's your sensations that let you know how you should feel about it. In the case of burning wood, the wood is a simple fuel. Evolutionarily speaking, that smell should be an attractant. After all, where there's burning wood, there's fire, and where there is fire, there is warmth. In the other case, your brain enjoys the smell of warm food. It knows that warming food makes it safer to eat. It also knows when the food is no longer beneficial to you. That is when you have burnt it, and changed its chemical composition to the point where it is no longer nutritious to your body. That is why it smells "bad". It's useless to your genes. The smell of feces is repulsive to humans. It's essentially entirely poisonous, and pure bacteria. The smell of rotting flesh makes us gag. Why wouldn't it? If 4000 years ago you came across that smell and a rotten carcass, you could be fairly sure there was something or someone who had just killed it not far off - and that means danger. And even more to the point, decomposition *should* smell terrible. Like mould, the smell indicates a parasite is consuming what could/should be your resources, and that triggers an alarm in your brain. Here's a little more food for thought. Why do so many people dislike the smell of fish? Unless you're accustomed to being around it, most people do find the smell of fish offensive. Back to evolution again. We all came out of the water before we became a land species. The smell of fish in water would indicate that that particular water was already inhabited by a group of fish and were consuming the resources within it. It's like dogs urinating on a fire hydrant. You "know" that your ability to sustain life is being hindered by another group of creatures, so the smell is perceived as offensive. There is an evolutionary explanation for nearly every human habit or sensation. To think otherwise would be entirely naive. Why is it that women are more often attracted to older and wealthier men than the other way around? And why is it that women are more likely to have an "unattractive" boyfriend than the other way around? It's genetic. Females brains are hard wired to seek out a male who has the resources, means, and ability to help raise children. Sometimes that means money. On the other hand, males are attracted to a certain body type that favours symmetry, indicating good genes and health, and a waste to hip ratio in women that is ideal for bearing children. Why is it that men generally get more sexually jealous than women? It's the man's genes creating a compulsion to keep his mate close by, so that he "knows" any children she bears are his own. If a women gets pregnant, she knows it's hers! The man, however, does not. So when babies are born, they look a lot more like their fathers for the first 2 months. That is no coincidence. Again, it's our genes ensuring the baby's survival. The father will see the resemblance and not have the primal urge to abandon a child that he believes is not his own. Everything is so deeply embedded in our genes, we even generalize our sensibilities to other species'. Why does everyone find baby animals cute? "cute" is just a set of characteristics that we perceive as pleasurable (big eyes to face ratio, big forehead etc.) so that we "want" to be around the young and in doing so ensure that they grow to adulthood safely. How many people think a baby elephant is cute? They are......but an adult elephant isn't "cute", and neither are adult humans. But we all start out "cute". It's just survival. If babies were born "ugly", they simply wouldn't have as much of a chance to survive. Nowadays, it's different, of course. But in terms of evolution, it happens that way for a reason. Evolutionary explanations for life's mysteries are all around us. All you have to do is pay attention and give them a little thought. I know I got a bit side tracked from the smell of gasoline and rubber, but I hope this sheds some insight on the topic, regardless.

it is wonderful! love filling up:)

I like gasoline, but diesel and gunpowder are the best.

Don't forget the smell of whiteout

Because of the efforts of the Republicans, Gasoline = High prices, ergo- Money.

i really dont know but i cant stand it