There is a Simpsons episode that gets into pheromones into pretty good detail. Lisa tries to make friends with a new student, Francine. Francine turns out to be a bully, and picks on Lisa in every which way. While doing her usual science stuff, Lisa discovers a pheromone produced by nerds all nerds, known to trigger aggression in bullies (you’d think it’s androstenone, but nerds would probably have low levels of it); she calls the pheromone “poindextrose”. When she isolates the pheromone, and sprays it on a professional weightlifter, even he became a bully target. Later, Lisa used salad dressing to make an antidote for poindextrose, which made Francine be nice to her. (It might be just a cover scent, but maybe the vinegar in the dressing broke down the supposed nerd pheromone.) At the same time, Francine attacked all the scientists in the room, who presumably produced high levels of the “nerd pheromone”.
While that episode was intended to be a little more than a comedy, it would be fun to think about how it relates to the discussion here on Pheromone Talk. I’m sure there are some things that match what we know from this site, as well as some glaring inaccuracies. So, let’s make a discussion out of it; here are some questions to get started.
- What pheromone from this site might the poindextrose be?
- What could the characters use a poindextrose antidote?
- Any ideas for more Simpsons episodes involving pheromones?
- More things you wish to add.
