In a study that was published in ‘Science Advances’ on Wednesday, June 22nd, researchers found that people with similar body odors feel an attachment, and friends who “clicked” at the start often exhibit similar body odor.
Olfaction researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, Inbal Raverby, investigated how body odor influences developments in relationships.
Ms. Raverby found 20 pairs that became friends immediately and had them go through an experiment where they stopped eating foods and using products that influenced body odor and made them use unscented soap when showering. She had all participants wear fresh, clean T-shirts to collect their body odors and send them to scientists to analyze.
Using an electronic nose to examine body odor on the T-Shirt and 25 volunteers to analyze the odor, they found that each pair of friends had similar odors compared to others in the study, suggesting friends picking up the odor of the other. When examining the results, Ms. Ravreby said, “It’s very probable that at least some of them were using perfumes when they met, but it did not mask whatever they had in common.”
While this could’ve been an indication that the friends picked up each other’s odor, the researchers were unsure, as having similar lifestyles made it difficult to determine if smell was a reason for the relationship to start and grow.
To answer this, they collected 132 participants with worn T-shirts to play a mirroring game. They assigned them in pairs, where one person would mimic the movements of the other. Following the game, the participants would fill out a questionnaire about their partner.
The researchers found that 71 percent of the time, pairs felt a positive connection when their odors were similar, proving that exposure to similar odors to our body produces a positive connection to that object.
Currently, Ms. Ravreby’s team is exploring modifying a person’s body odor to determine if people modified to have similar odors group together. If this is the case, then more evidence will point to humans factoring our sense of smell when making decisions.
There is still much to uncover about our body odor. When commenting about our body odor, Dr. Sobel said, “If you think of the bouquet that is body odor, it’s 6,000 molecules at least, … it’s probably way more.”
Link to article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/24/science/friendship-scent-odor.html
Olfaction researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, Inbal Raverby, investigated how body odor influences developments in relationships.
Ms. Raverby found 20 pairs that became friends immediately and had them go through an experiment where they stopped eating foods and using products that influenced body odor and made them use unscented soap when showering. She had all participants wear fresh, clean T-shirts to collect their body odors and send them to scientists to analyze.
Using an electronic nose to examine body odor on the T-Shirt and 25 volunteers to analyze the odor, they found that each pair of friends had similar odors compared to others in the study, suggesting friends picking up the odor of the other. When examining the results, Ms. Ravreby said, “It’s very probable that at least some of them were using perfumes when they met, but it did not mask whatever they had in common.”
While this could’ve been an indication that the friends picked up each other’s odor, the researchers were unsure, as having similar lifestyles made it difficult to determine if smell was a reason for the relationship to start and grow.
To answer this, they collected 132 participants with worn T-shirts to play a mirroring game. They assigned them in pairs, where one person would mimic the movements of the other. Following the game, the participants would fill out a questionnaire about their partner.
The researchers found that 71 percent of the time, pairs felt a positive connection when their odors were similar, proving that exposure to similar odors to our body produces a positive connection to that object.
Currently, Ms. Ravreby’s team is exploring modifying a person’s body odor to determine if people modified to have similar odors group together. If this is the case, then more evidence will point to humans factoring our sense of smell when making decisions.
There is still much to uncover about our body odor. When commenting about our body odor, Dr. Sobel said, “If you think of the bouquet that is body odor, it’s 6,000 molecules at least, … it’s probably way more.”
Link to article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/24/science/friendship-scent-odor.html