Hey guys,
I see this question all the time about whether these products work or whether they’re just placebo. This post may end up being pretty lengthy so if you want the TL;DR, the short answer is YES…to both questions. The two are not mutually exclusive and it is very possible (in fact very likely) that the products both work AND are largely placebo. This is not a bad thing! I will explain in more detail below.
First, let me explain who I am and why you should believe anything that I say. I am not getting paid to post this (although if Androtics would like to give me a discount…I am open-minded LOL 
). I want to preface by saying that anybody can post anything on the internet. You should always fact check what people say, and I will try to post reference materials to as much stuff as possible so you can do the actual background reading if you’d like. Okay, so back to me: I’ve been testing these products on my own for over 8 years now (you can check my join date on my profile). I also graduated from MIT with a degree in computer science and molecular biology. I’ve attached a picture as proof:
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I also currently work at a high stakes financial job where meeting with clients is extremely important. The point I am making is that although I am no expert in pheromones, I do have a strong background in biology and understanding the scientific process.
With that out of the way, onto the good stuff. Let’s start to answer the question “do these products work?” with a bottom up approach. What this means is we will break the question down to the lowest fundamental level, and build layers of complexity on top of it. The question we should start with is: do pheromones (in general, not just Androtics’ products) “work” as a form of behavioral communication in humans and other animals? The short answer is yes, and there is scientific research to back this up. This point is WAY more important than people realize. To draw a parallel to East Asian medicine (and I will be doing this frequently because it makes for a good reference point), there is no scientific proof that putting needles into your body would provide pain relief (acupuncture). However, this is evidence that acupuncture DOES provide symptom relief, and this is due to the placebo effect. We’ll get more into this later.
To recap, there is scientific evidence supporting the claim that pheromones do influence human social behavior. It is important to distinguish that these are actual studies that study causality instead of correlation and they use proper controls and scientific process. For those curious, I highly recommend reading these studies. One example studying the effect of androstanol is: Kirk-Smith, Michael (1978). “Human social attitudes affected by androstenol”. Research Communications in Psychology, Psychiatry & Behavior. You may not have access to these papers unless you are currently enrolled in a university but try googling. If you search pheromones in humans, you can find some great papers out there. If you are really interested, PM me and I can send you links to more.
My point is that there are some homeopathic remedies that people do that have no scientific proof of working; yet, people do them anyway and they actually do work for some people. Pheromones differ from these in that there is substantial evidence that they do work as a form of social communication. So why do things like acupuncture provide real and measurable symptom relief despite no scientific explanation of mechanics of action? The answer is placebo effect.
The power of the human mind is grossly misunderstood and underestimated. When a person beliefs something to be true, that thing can have profound and REAL effects on a person’s behavior. There are so many different scientific studies and examples of the power of placebo effect, and I will not list them all here. I highly recommend doing a little googling and you will find A LOT of material on this fascinating subject. I will, however, focus on just one example: the aforementioned acupuncture. The link is attached if you’d like to do the background reading but to summarize: the study found that although acupuncture does provide symptom relief as reported by the patient, it does not provide any additional symptom relief over sham acupuncture in which the patient is led to believe that he/she is undergoing acupuncture, but actually is not (fake needles, rolling paper or another sharp object against the skin, etc.). What is important is that the patient BELIEVES that he/she should feel better.
Link to acupuncture studies: Acupuncture Doesn’t Work | Science-Based Medicine
This same placebo effect clearly applies to a product like a pheromone spray. If a user believes that the product will give him or her more confidence, better charisma, etc., then these effects will reflect in the person’s actions and behaviors. For example, I always wear my A314 before my important business meetings. I believe the actual effects to others to be minimal and insignificant. HOWEVER, wearing the product gives ME confidence and I feel at ease and able to perform at my best while wearing it. The smell of the product has formed an associative memory in my brain. When I smell it, it calms me and gives me a boost of confidence. These are all REAL effects, whether they are entirely placebo or not.
To summarize my point, these products DO work, whether they are mostly (or entirely) due to placebo effect or not. We have the ADDED BENEFIT of knowing that unlike acupuncture, pheromones have scientific evidence stating that they are an actual form of behavioral and social communication in humans and other animals.
I hope this post was helpful in clearing up some misconceptions about the product and hopefully it’ll put to rest the constant questions regarding their efficacy. Cheers and have fun out there!