Introduction. Starting from the idea of Georg Simmel about the participation of the sense of smell in the formation of social isolation and disjunctive feelings, the author for the first time empirically evaluates the relationship between olfactory sensitivity of a person, the closeness of the dwelling and the reaction of crowding using the method of ascertaining experiment. The purpose. Theoretical analysis shows that the sense of smell is responsible for the occurrence of disgust, and experimental data confirm the relationship between spatial crowding (density of filling bedrooms), sense of smell and crowding, the emotional essence of which is determined by the feeling of disgust. Materials and methods. The ability to identify people by smell was measured by range and accuracy indicators during an experiment conducted in real student groups with different duration of interactions (1st-4th year), where a continuous testing of the intensity of students' crowding experiences was previously conducted in combination with an assessment of their living conditions. Contrary to the initial hypothesis about the linear dependence of crowding on the communal type of housing, there are no fundamental differences in the intensity of this experience between students living in a dormitory and in separate housing. The acute experience of crowding does not depend on the type of housing, but depends on crowding, depending on how many people share the space of a shared bedroom, which is a zone of special intimacy. Extremely high crowding values appear starting with three people who regularly invade the intimate space of the subject. The dynamism of crowding and its ability to accumulate, reaching a peak after two years of living in crowded conditions, was found. It becomes possible to define crowding as hypersensitivity, nervous irritability, which is accompanied by a painful exacerbation of the sense of smell. The results show that pronounced sensitivity to the smell of other people can be considered as a marker of latent social aggression. Such sensitivity serves as a protective reaction in conditions of violation of privacy, grows with strong crowding and collapses as they adapt to it, most quickly among young men who smoke, live in dormitories and communal apartments, in conditions of crowding that they cannot control.