# How women rate the sexiness/pleasantness of a man's body odor on genetic similarity **URL:** \ **Category:** Studies & Abstracts\ **Created:** [January 22, 2006, 9:34pm UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/how-women-rate-the-sexiness-pleasantness-of-a-mans-body-odor-on-genetic-similarity/108 "2006-01-22T21:34:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1
**Author:** ![Jasmin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/pheromonetalk.com/jasmin/32/287_2.png) [@Jasmin](https://pheromonetalk.com/u/Jasmin)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 9:34pm UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/how-women-rate-the-sexiness-pleasantness-of-a-mans-body-odor-on-genetic-similarity/108/1 "2006-01-22T21:34:43Z")
**The smell of love: how women rate the sexiness and pleasantness of a man’s body odor hinges on how much of their genetic profile is shared - Cover Story** **[Psychology Today](http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1175)**, [March-April, 1996](http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1175/is_n2_v29) by [F. Bryant Furlow](http://www.findarticles.com/p/search?tb=art&qt=%22F.+Bryant+Furlow%22) After long dismissing the search for a human pheromone as folly, scientists have begun to take a second look at how human body odor influences sexual attraction. The magic scent is not some romantic elixir but the aromatic effluence of our immune system. The only trouble is we don’t give it half a chance. How do we humans announce, and excite, sexual availability? any animals do it with their own biochemical bouquets known as [pheromones](https://pheromonelabs.com/shop/). “Why do bulls and horses turn up their nostrils when excited by love?” Darwin pondered deep in one of his unpublished notebooks. He came to believe that natural selection designed animals to produce two, and only two, types of odors-defensive ones, like the skunk’s, and scents for territorial marking and mate attracting, like that exuded by the male musk deer and bottled by perfumers everywhere. The evaluative sniffing that mammals engage in during courtship were clues that scent is the chemical equivalent of the peacock’s plumage or the nightingale’s song–finery with which to attract mates. In the following century, a rich array of animal pheromones were documented for seals, boars, rodents, and all manner of other critters. But not for human beings. Some of Darwin’s contemporaries embraced human uniqueness in this regard as evidence of our inevitable ascendance, as if Nature’s Plan somehow called for the evolution of a nearly naked two-legged primate with a poor sense of smell to conquer the Earth. The French physician Paul Broca–noting that primates’ social olfactory abilities are diminished compared to those of other mammals-asserted that monkeys, apes, and humans represent ascending steps from four-legged sniffing beasts to sight-oriented bipeds. Monkeys, he argued, have smaller “smell brains” than other mammals, and apes’ brains are even smaller than that. Among humans, only the tribal “primitives,” Broca wrote, could still attach erotic import to the bodily smells of man. More enlightened researchers dismissed such views as racist tripe. But they still noted that humans engage in very little scent-driven socializing–compared to, say, the urine-washing displays of monkeys (during which urine is rubbed on the feet to attract mates). To make matters worse, humans seemed to lack the hardware for communicating by scent. Pheromone reception in other species is the business of two little pits (one in each nostril) known collectively as the vomeronasal organ (VNO). Few scientists of the time claimed to have been able to locate a human VNO. Those who did complained that the VNO is so small that they could detect it only rarely. But most scientists, without bothering to look, simply dismissed the idea of a VNO in humans. It’s been scientific dogma for most of this century that humans do not rely on scent to any appreciable degree, and that any VNOs found are vestigial throwbacks. Then, in the 1930s, physiologists declared that humans lack the brain part to process VNO signals, firmly closing the book on any role for body odor in human sexual attraction. Even if we had a VNO, the thinking was, our brains wouldn’t be able to interpret its signals. Recent discoveries suggest, however, that the reports of our olfactory devolution have been greatly exaggerated. Some suspected as much the whole time. Smell researchers Barbara Sommerville and David Gee of the University of Leeds in England observed that smelling one another’s hands or faces is a nearly universal human greeting. The Eskimo kiss is not just a rubbing of noses but a mutual sniffing. “Only in the Western world,” the researchers point out, “has it become modified to a kiss.” Hands and faces may be significant choices for these formalities–they are the two most accessible concentrations of scent glands on the human body besides the ears. - SCENT AND SENTIMENT ANTI-PHEROMONES? DESPITE THE poor showing of androsterone in smell ratings, Karl Grammer of Austria’s Institute for Human Biology thought it might be the sought–after human pheromone and studied women’s reactions to it. He expected to find that women have a strong, favorable reaction to the smell of androsterone around ovulation, when their sense of smell becomes more acute and when they are most likely to conceive. Changes in their bodies’ estrogen levels around ovulation, Grammer suspected, may change how women react to androsterone’s smell. He found that women’s reactions to androsterone indeed change around ovulation–but not in the manner he expected. Instead of attraction, Grammer’s ovulating volunteers shrugged their shoulders and reported indifference. Androsterone, it seems, offers little hope to men looking for a $19.95 solution to their dating slumps. - OF MICE AND MEN - Can You Smell That Smell? Nobody yet knows what roles MHC may play in male evaluations of female attractiveness. Females’ superior sense of smell, however, may well be due to their need to more carefully evaluate a potential mate’s merits–a poor mate choice for male ancestors may have meant as little as a few minutes wasted, whereas a human female’s mistake could result in a ninemonth-long “morning after” and a child unlikely to survive. Perfumers who really want to provide that sexy allure to their male customers will apparently need to get a genetic fingerprint of the special someone before they can tailor a scent that she will find attractive. But before men contemplate fooling women in this way, they should consider the possible consequences. - FOOLING, MOTHER NATURE THE SWISS researchers found that women taking oral contraceptives (which block conception by tricking the body into thinking it’s pregnant) reported reversed preferences, liking more the smells that reminded them of home and kin. Since the Pill reverses natural preferences, a woman may feel attracted to men she wouldn’t normally notice if she were not on birth control–men who have similar MHC profiles. The effects of such evolutionary novel mate choices can go well beyond the bewilderment of a wife who stops taking her contraceptive pills and notices her husbands “newly” foul body odor. Couples experiencing difficulty conceiving a child–even after several attempts at tubal embryo transfer–share significantly more of their MHC than do couples who conceive more easily. These couples’ grief is not caused by either partner’s infertility, but to an unfortunate combination of otherwise viable genes. Doctors have known since the mid-1980s that couples suffering repeated spontaneous abortions tend to share more of their MHC than couples for whom pregnancies are carried to term. And even when MHC-similar couples do successfully bring a pregnancy to term, their babies are often underweight. The Swiss team believes that MHC-related pregnancy problems in humans are too widespread to be due to inbreeding alone. They argue that in-couple infertility problems are due to strategic, unconscious “decisions” made by women’s bodies to curtail investment in offspring with inferior immune systems–offspring unlikely to have survived to adulthood in the environments of our evolutionary past. When Broca and other social Darwinists pointed out that “uncivilized races” were more sensitive to body odor, they may have been correct–insofar as Europeans tend to go to greater lengths to perfume and wash away their natural scents. But this is hardly evidence of European superiority over “less evolved” peoples, as Broca insisted. Paying careful attention to the health of others and their suitability as sires to one’s offspring in the disease–rich tropics, whose cultures Broca derided, actually makes exceedingly good sense. Perfume; daily, soapy showers; convenient contraceptive pills–all have their charms. But they also may be short-circuiting our own built-in means of mate choice, adaptations shaped to our unique needs by millions of years of ancestral adversities. The existence of couples who long for children they cannot have indicates that the Western dismissal of body scent is scarcely benign. Those who find offensive the notion that animal senses play a role in their attraction to a partner need not worry. As the role of smell in human affairs yields to understanding, we see not that we are less human but that our tastes and emotions are far more complex and sophisticated than anyone ever imagined. RELATED ARTICLE: Get a Whiff of the Myths! Humans have smaller “smell brains” than the rest of the animal kingdom. Oops. The olfactory bulb has been there al find, buried in folds and folds of the frontal cortex. Okay, but we’re above scent-driven socialization. Left to its own devices, body scent plays a large and very clever role in mate attraction. The sexiest smells humans produce are related to the sex hormones. Actually, the body scents important in mate attraction are–this even surprised researchers–aromatic by-products of the immune system. Each of us has a unique “smellprint” that is equally appealing to all others. How pleasant and sexy our body odors are is a totally relative matter. We smell best to a person whose genetically based immunity to disease differs most from our own. The notion that animal sense play a role in personal attraction dimishes our humanity. Scientific understanding of the role of smell in our lives leads only to conclusions that our tastes and emotions are highly sophisticated, the product of may inputs. RELATED ARTICLE: How To Smell a Mate How does body odor affect a woman’s sexiness? Scientists don’t know for sure, but they do know that a man’s allure depends in any immune system genes he shares with a potential mate. Since it’s known that women can detect genetic compatibility by smell–it’s not that men can’t but that so far no one knows–the onus is on females to sniff out a suitable squire. Choosing a genetically compatible partner can be difficult today’s perfume rich postindustrial jungle, and getting your immune system genes profiled can be expensive. Before you run to a doctor for blood work to see whether your mate is a suitable match–and sire for your future children–try listening to your nose. (Unfortunately, the sniff test will only work if you’re not taking birth control pills. - 1. Declare a deception-free day for the nostrils. Have your beau shower with fragrance-free soap and wear clean cotton clothing for a day, away from smokers and the perfumed masses. Be sure you don’t have a cold, and that you yourself haven’t been around smokers for a few days. 1. After he spends a day and a night in his cotton clothes, before he tosses them in the direction of the hamper, wrestle them from him and have a “smelldown.” Make it a romantic experience. If your man’s shirt doesn’t offend, you should be safe. (Find the scent alluring or sexy. Even better! That attraction is nature’s way of telling you he’s a safe contributor to your offspring’s genetic ensemble.) - 1. If your man’s odor reminds you of your father or of a brother, you may want to consider getting in touch with your doctor and ask about genetic tests before trying to conceive a child. Tell the doctor you’re concerned that you may share a close MHC or “HLA” profile. (HLA, for human leukocyte antigen, is a technical tag for human MHC.) Meanwhile, a deceptively pleasing gift of cologne might be in order. - 1. Genetic incompatibility is not the only reason you may find his odor offensive. Does his body scent seem unusually intense? He might have a medical condition that explains the smell. Ask him to bring it up at his next medical checkup. A very sweet scent is sometimes evidence of diabetes or schizophrenia–both of which appear to be heritable. It is wise to discuss these issues with each other, and with a doctor, before having kids. - 1. Before you decide that your relationship stinks, check your mate’s diet. A taste for spicy foods or an overindulgence in garlic can cause strong body odors. - 1. If your mate still offends, don’t head for the hills just yet. Some clothing detergents can prove to be a bad mix with a fella’s scent. Ask that the next time he visits the laundry, he change brands–and give the stinker a second chance! RELATED ARTICLE: When a Kiss Is Not a Kiss! The Eskimo kiss is a rubbing of noses. In reality it is a case of mutual sniffing of bodily smells. Only in the Western world has mutual sniffing been reprogrammed to a kiss. We humans are smell poor, possessing less hardware for smelling than other animals. Recent findings demonstrate that we have lots of scent-related equipment. People pay little attention to the fragrant or the rancid in their everyday lives. Human sweat, urine, breath, saliva, breast milk, skin oils, and sexual secretions all contain scent-laden chemical compounds. Part of the problem is that no all smells register in our conscious mind–although they may nonetheless influence mood. --- _[View the full topic](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/how-women-rate-the-sexiness-pleasantness-of-a-mans-body-odor-on-genetic-similarity/108)._