The Scent Of Love: How Smells Affect Attraction In Humans And Animals
Israeli researchers performed an experiment where women watched a sad movie scene, and collected the resulting tears. When they wafted the sad-tainted tears under the noses of some male subjects, the response wasn’t, as they expected, a surge in empathy, but a decline in testosterone levels and sexual arousal.
And pair bonds may increase our sensitivity to a partner’s scent. Researchers collected sweat from volunteers to capture their body odor while they were in a neutral mood, or in a variety of heightened states – fear, happiness or arousal. Then they gave the sweat samples to another person – either a stranger to the first subject, or a romantic partner. Though participants couldn’t distinguish between specific emotions conveyed through sweat, they could distinguish between neutral and moody odors – and the romantic partners were able to do it better than strangers, with those in the longest-term relationships performing the best.
Zookeepers and biologists have discovered that tigers, cheetahs, jaguars and other big cats go wild for the smell of Calvin Klein’s Obsession for Men. In one Bronx Zoo experiment, cheetahs stuck around sniffing Obsession-sprayed objects for more than 11 minutes – longer than they usually linger over a meal, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Obsession is “a combination of this lickable vanilla heart married to this fresh green top note — it creates tension,” fragrance designer Ann Gottlieb, who created the Calvin Klein scent, told the WSJ in 2010. But the key kitty-attracting component may be a synthetic replica of the musk produced by the cat-like civet.
“It sparks curiosity with humans and, apparently, animals,” Gottlieb said.
Edited from Roxanne Palmer – http://www.ibtimes.com/scent-love-how-smells-affect-attraction-humans-animals-1552638
