Have you ever seen a good looking woman or men walk by and do a double take? We all have different characteristics that we deem attractive in people. One may think that people put much more emphasis on our vision rather on our other senses in determining how attractive another individual is. But what about our other senses? Does smell or sound of a person’s voice help us determine how attractive someone is? Or how else does smell play a role in communication?
I came across an article that explores the question of whether people use olfactory communication as a means of finding a partner and also how smell can communicate other behaviors. A study at a university found that women begin to synchronize their menstrual cycle when they share housing. What was even more astounding was that when women were exposed to menstruating women’s sweat, these women than began to synchronize their menstrual cycle with the women whose sweat they were exposed to.
A second study had a group of women who applied a synthetic female pheromone that was added to their perfume. The control group applied the same perfume but lacked the synthetic female pheromone. Although the treatment group and the control group did not differ in the types of behaviors, the occurrence of the behaviors was significantly higher in the treatment group. The treatment group reported an increase in the following behaviors: sexual intercourse, sleeping next to a partner, formal dating and petting/affection/kissing over a six week period.
Another article focuses on how voice can play a role in human attraction. A university used 20 men and 25 women in their study. These individuals left scripted phone messaged while they were viewing face images of fictious individuals who “received” their phone messages. These ficitious individuals were ranked as to how attractive they were perceived to an individual. The results showed that both sexes tended to use a lower-pitched voice when they “spoke” to a more attractive individual. They go on to explain that it in movies, televisions shows, etc a sexier individual is portrayed as having a lower-pitched, huskier voice. Therefore they concluded that lowering one’s voice is a learned behavior to help communicate a romantic interest in another individual.
According to these two articles, it is more than just vision that plays a role in human communication. Vision as well as smell can play a role in determining sexual attraction.
References:
Grammer, K., Fink, B., Neave, N. (2005). Human pheromones and sexual attraction. European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Biology. 118 (2), 135-142.
This is a very interesting topic. I came across “The Smell Report” by the Social Issues Research Centre that talked about women’s attraction to male pheromones. Women are especially sensitive to male pheromones around the time of ovulation. However, not all pheromones are equally attractive. Women are attracted to androstenol, which is the scent produced by fresh male sweat. Women are not attracted to androstenone, which is the scent produce by male sweat after it has been oxidize. So, if a male wears the same clothes he wore to workout in this morning, he may be considered “unattractive” to most women. Interestingly, if a female is ovulating, her negative response to andronstenone will become neutral.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sirc.org/publik/smell_attract.html
Here’s interesting food for thought: why do we have hair? The lingering remainder of fur, most of our hair was lost somewhere along the evolutionary line, probably to keep us cool. So what’s with the leftover hairy areas? One theory is that hair releases pheromones. Oil and sweat glands on the head make it the perfect place to secrete and store liquids that are chalk full of pheromones – these pheromones are stored in hair follicles. So, longer hair stores more pheromones – all the better for potential mate attraction. Aprocrine glands – specialized sweat gland that contain pheromones – are located in the armpits and head. Hair helps the process by collecting these pheromones. The vomeronasal organ, located in the nose, picks up the pheromones and sends signals to the brain triggering the release of hormones, igniting sexual attraction and excitement.
ReplyDeleteEtcoff, N. L. (1999). Survival of the prettiest. New York: Radom House.