This made me laugh.. A famous french science website published an article today entitled: " Do Human Pheromones Exist? "
Here i was worried that my new found secret had been discovered!
WELL after going on and on about what pheromones are and how they work on different animals they get to the case of Homo Sapiens. They say that although we DO have a vomeronasal organ that would allow us to process pheromonal information, their effect would be minimum ( they dont seem to give any proof to that)
They then go on explaining the Maclintosh effect and how pheromones on humans are controversial and that stores selling androstenone and androstenol are prob a scam.. Hehe if only the knew
Just my two cents here but this was my thinking on why so many people think that pheros are a scam. The Vomeronasal organ is pretty much vestigal at this point given that we communicate verbally and visually instead of needing pheromones to handle the more basic needs. That is not to say we don’t rely solely on verbal/visual communications but given that words and sights speak louder and more concisely our intents than through pheros, the organ has fallen out of use. So I think when a phero doesn’t work so to speak on someone, I’d be willing to wager that aside from the possibility that they are used to the particular phero (Indians tend to have higher none exposure as I understand it), that particular person’s VNO might be more disused than another person’s. Just a theory on my part but that would explain the inconsistency in pheros and why people are so quick to assume that it’s all a scam.
I entirely agree with ya! With evolution the primitive forms of the Hominidae family found new ways of communicating. Through sounds ( chimp screams etc) and gestures.
Who knows maybe the African tundra we originated from didnt allow us to communicate efficiently through pheromones or our sense of odor wasnt developed enough. This process of finding a new ways to communicate sexual disponibility was critical for obvious reasons. Maybe it happened way earlier in our evolution i wouldnt know.
Although what i do know is that evolution isnt an ON/OFF process. It is gradual in essence. Even though we evolved away from the insects or other mammals that essentially use mones to give off these sexual messages who says that we cant be responsive (mainly in a subconscious way) to the messages they send?
Just like the Laryngeal nerve that goes all the way around the heart to go back up to the throat, a vestige we inherited from our fish ancestors. Our VNO might be vestigial but who says it isnt there for a ( small) purpose anyway?
It would be interesting to see how the VNO differs from race to race and if there is a relation between its structure and the pheromones each race seems to be more or less responsive to wouldn’t it?
For now…