Humans can pick friends using their sense of smell, and much evidence has been proved through studies. Of course, humans don’t smell each other because of polite manners.
Friends have a lot more in common than strangers. Genetics, patterns of brain activity, and appearance is all included, but do friends have similar body odors?
Inbal Ravreby, a graduate student in the lab of Noam Sobel and an olfaction researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, wanted to find out if people who had friendships that were formed in an instant had the same body odor.
She found 20 pairs of friendships that were formed in an instant and put them in a procedure. She made them stop eating onions and garlic, no deodorant and aftershave, shower with non-scented soap, and sleep with a lab-provided T-shirt that was new, fresh and clean.
After the whole operation, Ravreby used an electronic nose to assess the volatiles; they found that most of the pairs had similar odors than strangers.
“It’s very probable that at least some of them were using perfumes when they met,” Ms. Ravreby said. “But it did not mask whatever they had in common.”
Many things can change smell, and friends can have similar body odors for various reasons. Eating the same types of food, having a similar lifestyle, and so on are all things that could affect similar body odors.
There are still many mysteries about what scent can do to our lives.
“If you think of the bouquet that is body odor, it’s 6,000 molecules at least. There are 6,000 that we know of already — it’s probably way more,” says Dr. Sobel.
Friends have a lot more in common than strangers. Genetics, patterns of brain activity, and appearance is all included, but do friends have similar body odors?
Inbal Ravreby, a graduate student in the lab of Noam Sobel and an olfaction researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, wanted to find out if people who had friendships that were formed in an instant had the same body odor.
She found 20 pairs of friendships that were formed in an instant and put them in a procedure. She made them stop eating onions and garlic, no deodorant and aftershave, shower with non-scented soap, and sleep with a lab-provided T-shirt that was new, fresh and clean.
After the whole operation, Ravreby used an electronic nose to assess the volatiles; they found that most of the pairs had similar odors than strangers.
“It’s very probable that at least some of them were using perfumes when they met,” Ms. Ravreby said. “But it did not mask whatever they had in common.”
Many things can change smell, and friends can have similar body odors for various reasons. Eating the same types of food, having a similar lifestyle, and so on are all things that could affect similar body odors.
There are still many mysteries about what scent can do to our lives.
“If you think of the bouquet that is body odor, it’s 6,000 molecules at least. There are 6,000 that we know of already — it’s probably way more,” says Dr. Sobel.