“I emitted some civetlike female stink, a distinct perfume of sexual wanting, that he had followed to find me here in the dark.”
―
Janet Fitch, White Oleander
“The best smell in the world is that man
that you love.”
- Jennifer
Aniston
Pheromone Parties
One of the newest trends in matchmaking has little to do
with physical attraction. You may be surprised but that what it is. People are
being paired based on the way they smell. Here you go – you can try to find
your perfect match at so-called pheromone party.
Twenty-five-year-old Judith Prays, an Atlanta-based
artist, created the idea of pheromone parties to help people find love. Prays
said, "It's about romance. Intellectual connection is not always the most
important thing in a relationship."
Here is how it works: Singles attending the bash are
instructed to sleep in the same T-shirt for three nights, and then store it in
a plastic bag in the freezer to maintain the scent. Then, participants bring
their shirt in the bag to the meet-up. The bags are marked with numbers and
labeled pink for women and blue for men. Participants browse the shirts, take a
few whiffs, and then choose the one they find most appealing. They are
photographed while they do so, and then the photographs are displayed. Strangers
then introduce themselves to each other based on who is pictured with their
shirt.
Although pheromones do not give off an actual odor, the body
is able to process them and create a chemical reaction in the brain.
Web reaction has been mostly positive. One person tweeted
that this new way of biological dating is "fascinating," and another
said she believes it is possible to sniff your way to love. Some people remain
skeptical. One person said she is not sure if she should follow her heart or
her nose.
The first pheromone party took place in New York in 2010. At another one, in Los
Angeles on April 5, more than 100 people showed up. The trend is spreading
around as a wildfire…
What these Pheromones
actually are?
Pheromones, or chemical signals sent from one individual to
another which affect behavior, are argued to influence meaningful behaviors
once thought to be completely controlled by conscious personal choice, such as
sexual willingness and attraction. They also introduce the possibility that we
may be constantly communicating with each other and making interpersonal
judgments of which we are unaware. The possible implications of this invisible
sense are significant and far-reaching.
In the animal kingdom, pheromones are well-known and
well-documented phenomena. In the human realm, we are still learning. We know
that pheromones are released through bodily fluids – especially sweat. The
effect on the opposite sex is subtle, as the almost undetectable pheromone
drifts through the air and is inhaled.
Scientists are not in full agreement regarding the human
Vomeronasal Organ (VNO), which – in theory – detects the scent of attraction. Some
believe we scent pheromones through our standard sense of smell and that our
VNO is inactive. Others feel we simply have not figured out the mechanics yet.
Either way, the pheromone is “scented”, and causes the other person to “hone
in” on the person secreting the scent.
History of Research
The first convincing evidence for the existence of human
pheromones was presented in 1971, when Martha McClintock published a paper,
documenting the synchronization of the menstrual cycles of her and her fellow
female dorm mates. It seemed likely that something pheromonal was at work, as
this phenomenon mirrored a similar occurrence caused by pheromones in mice, known
as the Lee-Boot effect. McClintock provided further evidence for this a few
years ago in a controlled experiment published in the Journal Nature. She found
that secretions from the underarms of females in the follicular phase of
menstruation significantly shortened the cycles of other female test subjects
when applied under their noses, and secretions from the ovulatory cycle
accordingly lengthened their cycles. In addition, she noticed that certain
females seemed much more sensitive to the secretions than others, with
responses of lengthening or shortening ranging from 1 to 14 days difference.
McClintock also predicts that pheromones of social
interaction may be found to affect humans in many more of the same ways they
have been found to affect rats, including age of puberty onset, interbirth
intervals, age at menopause, and level of chronic estrogen exposure throughout
a woman's life. Not only does this evidence point toward a type of invisible
chemical communication between women, but the variable sensitivities of certain
women compared to others indicates that certain women may be dominant over
others in determining the cycles of the entire group. Further evidence of this
invisible power structure is provided by Michael Russell, who performed a
case-study on a female colleague who had observed that it was always her cycle
to which other females synchronized.
Other studies provide evidence that it is not only females
who communicate with each other pheromonally, but that males as well as females
can influence each other sexually. Various studies have found that sexual
exposure to males causes irregularly cycling women to begin cycling more
regularly, which is another well-studied occurrence in mice known as the
Whitten effect, and has been linked to pheromones. Dr. Alex Comfort also noted
that during Victorian times the average age of the onset of menstruation was
much higher than in post-Victorian times, when co-education of males and females
became more acceptable. So male pheromones may play a large part in the
regulation of the hormones, which cause menstruation. Women, who have sex with
men at least once a week, have in fact been found to have fewer infertility
problems and milder menopause than those who do not. And, sex may not be
necessary, but rather just the exposure to men's pheromones which are released
only at close range. The implications of these findings are that male
pheromones may be necessary for women to achieve optimum health, and that this
may in part explain the female attachment to men.
Other studies by Russell also found that around 6 weeks of age,
almost all babies will react more favorably to a pad containing the sweat of
their mother than to a stranger’s pad, and that people can identify their own
sweaty shirts as well as those of a strange male and female with a relatively
high rate of accuracy. These functions in humans seem similar to the
identifying functions of pheromones found in many other animals.
Perhaps the most controversial human behavior, which may be
influenced by pheromones, is sexual preference and mate selection. A case study
by Kalogerakis found that at around the age of three years a boy named Jackie
began to prefer the smells of his mother much more than those of his father,
especially after she had recently had intercourse. The smells of the father at
this time, until the boy reached six years old, caused aversion and some
nausea. This behavior supports not only the theory of sexual attraction by
pheromones but also Freud's theory of an innate "Oedipal complex" in
young boys. And in addition to women's health being beneficially affected over
time by exposure to male pheromones, the moods of women have been shown to
improve when exposed to the male steroid androstadienone. A study also found
men and women are more attracted to individuals whose genetically based
immunity to disease is most different from their own. Companies have not only
begun to market so-called "pheromone colognes" containing compounds
meant to attract members of the opposite sex, but these colognes have been
reported to have some success for both men and women.
There are still many, who are skeptical about the actual
existence of a pheromone receptor in humans, which is separate from other smell
receptors in the nose. The vomeronasal organ, which serves this purpose in
other species, has long been considered as nonexistent in humans after a
certain fetal growth stage. However, there is a distinctive pit in the human
nose with nerve endings, which may still serve this purpose, if the axons of
these neurons end in separate, more primitive parts of the brain than the more
common nasal sensory neurons. This has yet to be definitively proven, but it
seems especially unlikely that menstrual synchronization could be caused by
scent alone and not specific chemical factors independent of the I-function.
How Pheromones Work
In order to understand pheromones and attraction, it is
important to note that there are several hormones’ varieties - there are four
separate and distinct types, which cause a different reaction in the person who
scents them:
* Releaser pheromones– you see someone across a room and
your physical and sexual reaction to them hits you hard and fast.
* Primer pheromones– take longer to manifest and influence
hormone production, menstruation, puberty and the ability to get pregnant.
* Signaler pheromones– are “you” by scent. Some women can
recognize their infants by scent due to these informational pheromones.
* Modulator pheromones– these involve sweat. Animal females
in studies became calm when the sweat of their male partners was placed beneath
their noses. In humans, it causes feelings of well-being and relaxation.
More studies are being done in this field but initial
results are incredibly interesting. Advocates say that pheromones create a
sense of personal attractiveness and relaxation that draws the opposite sex to
you. Opponents insist it is all in the user’s head. Perhaps the
confidence-booster of believing in yourself as an attractive being is all an
applied pheromone is – but there is no denying that it works.
Two separate studies – done by the University of Chicago and
Bennett Research Lab in Australia – noted measurable improvements in
male/female socio-sexual interactions.
How Does Mate
Selection Work?
Mate selection is a task of information processing.
Evolution favors individuals who are able to quickly and reliably process
information that allows them to make the appropriate mating decisions. It is
often hypothesized, that since neither males nor females can adequately
determine when a female is ovulating, women are able to “trick” men into
staying in a relationship. Because males are unaware of females’ fertility, men
are more or less forced to remain with the same mate until they are confident
impregnation has occurred. If a female were to provide cues as to when she was
ovulating, it could make finding a helping partner more difficult.
Some researchers and scientists believe that hidden
ovulation gives women the upper hand in the mating world. Other researchers
believe that women are seeking good genes during the mating process. Pheromones
attribute to this theory. According to some studies, women seem to prefer the
odors of immunocompatible men, meaning that each part of the couple donates
immunity that the other partner does not donate. This gives the offspring more
of an opportunity to survive after birth.
While the mating system of ancestral hominids is unknown, it
is likely that during hominid evolution there was at least some male investment
in mating and offspring upon which natural selection has shaped modern human
mating behavior.
Recommendations
If you aren't planning on attending a Pheromone Party but
want to make sure your scent is at its most alluring, tips from the event’s
organizers include minimizing consumption of spices, garlic, and onions during
the collection phase, limiting the use of fragrant products and not shaving
under the armpits.
If you want to trick the nature and secure your higher
chances of success among potential mates, you may check for pheromone products.
For example, pheromone-based perfumes have long been of interest in the
fragrance industry, while the website humanpheromone.org offers a guide to some
of the most popular pheromone products around.
Sources and Additional
Information:
