Women who wore perfume with synthesized female pheromone were more
attractive to their male partners, conclude scientists at San Francisco
State University.
Pheromones are odorless chemicals excreted from the body that
affect reproductive interactions among both animals and humans.
They are picked up by a special organs or tissues in the nose,
and then conveyed to regions higher up in the brain.
The new study, appearing in the journal Physiology and Behavior,
found that women who had pheromone added to their perfume reported
a more than 50 percent increase in sexual attention from men: they
were involved in more sexual intercourse, kissing, heavy petting,
affection, and slept closer to their partner or date.
Women wearing perfume with a placebo also experienced an increase
in these activities, though not as great as the pheromone group.
The authors say this increase can be explained by the effect that
results from "just thinking" you are wearing a sexy pheromone.
"The most highly significant difference between the placebo
and the pheromone group was actually sexual intercourse," says
Norma McCoy, lead author and professor of psychology at San Francisco
State University. "It is clear that there is something that
is odorless and is being exuded from reproductive age women — that
affects male behavior — that makes the women attractive."
Pheromones and Attraction
The pheromone used in the study is what its maker, Athena Institute
for Women's Wellness Research, believes is a generic substrate,
a substance that when put on someone's skin reacts with that person's
own chemistry to achieve its effect.
Adds Winnifred Cutler, institute founder and president and a reproductive
biologist and co-discoverer of pheromones in humans, "When
it works for a woman, it doesn't seem to matter what perfume she
wears."
Research has also shown that significantly more men who wore aftershave
with a synthetic version of a male-excreted pheromone engaged in
sexual intercourse and sleeping next to their partner than those
who wore aftershave with placebo.
The institute is offering the pheromone for sale, using the proceeds
to fund pheromone research. The company also sells a pheromone
that can be worn by men. f0c6e39f-0c6e-4d41-a16e-ad18a50a2ec3
Beyond Sexual Attraction
There is more to pheromones than sexual attraction, according
to Cutler.
"If you divide up the research on pheromones into what type
of behaviors are shown to be affected by them, you can organize
them into four different classes," says Cutler: mother-infant
interaction, territorial marking, reproductive synchrony, and sexual
attraction.
While most studies on the topic use animals, there have been intriguing
human findings, too.
Studies have shown, for instance, that babies as young as three
days old are able to distinguish the odor of their mother from
that of other nursing mothers. Babies will turn their faces toward
lingerie that has been worn by their own mothers — and ignore
other women's — when the garments are waved over their heads.
Other research on reproductive synchrony has shown that women
living together in dorms or working together have synchronized
menstrual cycles. Interestingly, one study of women working in
pairs found that women who said they disliked each other did not
cycle together.
Future Pheromone Research
In addition to providing interesting insight into the roots of
human behavior, pheromone research may have some therapeutic uses.
The Athena Institute is currently exploring uses of attractant
pheromones to improve social interactions of people who may experience
subconscious shunning by others, such as people with cerebral palsy.
In addition, infertility groups have expressed interest in doing
research on women who are undergoing infertility treatments to
see the effect that these chemicals have on the outcome.
Attractant pheromones may also be useful to women who have undergone
hysterectomies.
"In women a loss of sexual attraction is frequently experienced
after hysterectomy and there is a need for a double blind study
to look at the role that pheromones play in that," explains
Cutler.
These future research projects have the potential to expand the
application of pheromones to humans beyond the perfume bottle. |
