SMELL SCIENCE
The idea is based on the science of pheromones: the chemical signals that creatures from gerbils to giraffes to humans send out to entice mates.
Olfactory communication, or communication by scent in humans, has far been underestimated in the past according to researchers at the University of Vienna. They argue that many recent studies have found that pheromones not only play a role in the behavioral and reproduction biology of humans, but also in human sexual behavior.
Here is a quick video on the smell of attraction:
Researchers at the University of Bern in Switzerland tested their curiosity of humans’ ability to detect specific smells and pheromones by asking women to smell different sweaty T-shirts worn by men for 2 days straight without deodorant, cologne and other distracting scents. The women were asked to rate each man’s shirt for “sexiness,” “pleasantness,” and “intensity of smell.” They found that the ratings were all determined by MHC. MHC, major histocompatibility complex, is a segment of our DNA related to the immune system. It was discovered in this experiment that the women preferred the smell of the shirts from men with very different MHC profiles. Conversely, the women did not like the smell of the shirts from men with similar MHC profiles. This again confirms the idea that our sense of smell has something to do with attraction.
