Dr Alan Hirsh, founder of the Smell & Taste Treatment & Research Foundation in California, has suggested the link.

The theory is that those with extroverted personalities will have loud, heavy sneezes, while shy or quiet people will have softer, stifled ones.

Speaking to NBS News, Dr Hirsh says “sneezes are like laughter. Some [laughs] are loud, some are soft. And it’s similar with sneezing. It will often be the same from youth onward in terms of what it sounds like. It’s more of a psychological thing and represents the underlying personality or character structure”

Hirsh is proposing in-depth research is carried out to examine the theory, as he is unaware of existing work on whether distinctive sneeze types have any psychological grounding. Indeed, he expands on his theory by wondering if sneezing could even be linked to sexuality.

“If someone is more sexually repressed, they may withhold it,” Hirsh suggests, “but if they’re hedonistically-oriented and like pleasure, they may sneeze loudly and strongly.”

In the past, scientists have proposed facial bone structure and nose shapes could influence the strength and type of a person’s sneezing.