Studies have shown that odors can determine how easily a person bonds with a stranger.
A recent study led by researcher Inbal Ravreby, a doctoral candidate at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, had 20 pairs of “new” friends, who just hit it off, conduct an experiment. Each participant had a T-shirt and soap given to them. Using the soap to wash off any previous miscellaneous odors, the participants wore the T-shirt for two days. The researchers used high-level scent detection to compare the odors of the T-shirts after. After analyzing, they realized that the friend pairs had similar odors compared to the other pairs. The conclusion was that humans unconsciously smell in social interactions and base their preferences off of that smell.
Even so, the study doesn’t necessarily mean that lifelong friends are based on scent, “but this does suggest that there’s a contribution of olfaction [sense of smell] to forming a friendship,” said Valentina Parma, a researcher at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. It also proves that smell is more important in bonding than people notice.
Babies are an example of this. When they are born, their vision isn’t very sharp, but their smell is already fully developed. They naturally prefer the scent of their mother over all others. The same can be said for romance as well, where people could prefer the scent of their romantic partners.
Another experiment was also conducted with 17 strangers, where the scent detection software used the odors to predict possible friendships. The software was able to predict friendships with a 71% success rate, which suggests that it’s true for most friendships, but not all.
At the moment, there isn’t a concrete level to how much scent affects a person’s connection to someone else, but the reason why it does has been theorized. “I do think that body odor similarity may play an important role in our tendency to approach or avoid someone and our tendency to click,” said Ravreby. Body odor is caused by two factors, which are genetic makeup and immune function. Ravreby hypothesized, “smelling others all allows us to compare between their body odor and our own body odor, and by that we may have an indication to the degree of genetic similarity between us.”
Mental disorders like autism have caused many people to have social imparities. Through this study, smell-based therapy could be effective in helping children with autism to make new friends. In Ravreby’s research, children with autism who were exposed to the scent of their mothers were able to imitate the social actions of others more accurately, an ability often lost through autism.
Link: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-06-24/smells-like-friendship-similar-body-odors-may-draw-folks-together
A recent study led by researcher Inbal Ravreby, a doctoral candidate at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, had 20 pairs of “new” friends, who just hit it off, conduct an experiment. Each participant had a T-shirt and soap given to them. Using the soap to wash off any previous miscellaneous odors, the participants wore the T-shirt for two days. The researchers used high-level scent detection to compare the odors of the T-shirts after. After analyzing, they realized that the friend pairs had similar odors compared to the other pairs. The conclusion was that humans unconsciously smell in social interactions and base their preferences off of that smell.
Even so, the study doesn’t necessarily mean that lifelong friends are based on scent, “but this does suggest that there’s a contribution of olfaction [sense of smell] to forming a friendship,” said Valentina Parma, a researcher at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. It also proves that smell is more important in bonding than people notice.
Babies are an example of this. When they are born, their vision isn’t very sharp, but their smell is already fully developed. They naturally prefer the scent of their mother over all others. The same can be said for romance as well, where people could prefer the scent of their romantic partners.
Another experiment was also conducted with 17 strangers, where the scent detection software used the odors to predict possible friendships. The software was able to predict friendships with a 71% success rate, which suggests that it’s true for most friendships, but not all.
At the moment, there isn’t a concrete level to how much scent affects a person’s connection to someone else, but the reason why it does has been theorized. “I do think that body odor similarity may play an important role in our tendency to approach or avoid someone and our tendency to click,” said Ravreby. Body odor is caused by two factors, which are genetic makeup and immune function. Ravreby hypothesized, “smelling others all allows us to compare between their body odor and our own body odor, and by that we may have an indication to the degree of genetic similarity between us.”
Mental disorders like autism have caused many people to have social imparities. Through this study, smell-based therapy could be effective in helping children with autism to make new friends. In Ravreby’s research, children with autism who were exposed to the scent of their mothers were able to imitate the social actions of others more accurately, an ability often lost through autism.
Link: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-06-24/smells-like-friendship-similar-body-odors-may-draw-folks-together