Scent and Sensibility

Humans can sniff masculinity apart from femininity

Humans can sniff masculinity apart from femininity

According to a new study, the smell of active steroid ingredients in men and women influence others’ perceptions of them as either masculine or feminine.

The existence of pheromones, or chemical signals secreted by the body that act as sexual cues, is known to exist in many animals. But until now, evidence of human pheromones had been inconclusive. Previous studies have indicated that androstadienone, a chemical compound found in male semen and armpits, gives women a positive mood, but not men. A similar effect has been identified of the compound estratetraenol found in female urine; where men exposed to this chemical were found to have their mood altered positively.

For this study, published in Current Biology, researchers of China’s Chinese Academy of Science made men and women—both hetero- and homosexual—watch moving dot figures, also known as point-light walkers (PLWs). These dot figures consist of 15 dots that represent the 12 major joints in the human body, plus the pelvis, thorax and head.

Participants were then exposed to either androstadienone, estratetraenol or a neutral solution— all of which smelt like cloves to prevent any conscious recognition—and made to judge whether the dot walkers were masculine or feminine.

The researchers found that when heterosexual females smelt androstadienone, they saw the figures as masculine. By contrast, heterosexual males perceived the walkers as feminine when they smelt estratetraenol.

Interestingly, the researchers found that homosexual males responded to gender pheromones more like heterosexual females did. The researchers report that bisexual or homosexual female responses to the same scents fell somewhere in between those of heterosexual males and females.

The researchers write in the journal: ‘The results provide the first direct evidence that the two human steroids communicate opposite gender information that is differentially effective to the two sex groups based on their sexual orientation. Moreover, they demonstrate that human visual gender perception draws on subconscious chemosensory biological cues, an effect that has been hitherto unsuspected.’

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