On Mon, 25 May 2009 08:31:36 -0700, Jim Clark wrote: >Hi > >Mike's hypothetical study is not too far from prior research on >attractiveness of odors collected at different points in the menstrual >cycle (and of faces as noted in the article). Just need to add the >genetic component to the equation. > > http://www.livescience.com/health/060118_armpit_odor.html
On the same website above, there is an article that reports a study very similar to what I had suggested. Quoting from it: |Stinky T-shirts | |In 1996, Claus Wedekind, a zoologist at Bern University in Switzerland, |conducted what's become known as the stinky T-shirt study. |Wedekind had 44 men each wear a t-shirt for two nights straight, |then tested how women reacted to the smelly shirts. | |Like mice, women preferred the scent of men whose immune systems |were unlike their own. If a man's immune system was similar, a woman |tended to describe his T-shirt as smelling like her father or brother. | |Since then, companies have developed pheremone-based perfumes |and cologns, with promises of increased sexual attraction. Researchers |don't agree on their effectiveness. | |More research is needed to figure out how and to what extent a woman's |nose leads her to sex, and how adept she is at picking a healthy partner. | |"We cannot rule out that other parts of the human nose are able to detect |the peptides," Frank Zufall said. "We can now ask whether these peptides |are present in human secretions such as sweat and saliva, whether they |can be detected by the human nose, and if so, whether they have any |influence on our own social behavior." http://www.livescience.com/health/041104_sex_and_smell.html How freaky would it be to be out on a date and being told: "Funny, you smell like my father." -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
