Scent and Mate Selection
Q: I’ve improved how I dress but I’ve never really given much thought to how I smell. Women don’t even care that much, right? It’s all about what’s inside that counts.
A: Uhh, not quite. Being a good person will certainly help you get and keep a date, but there is a complex set of factors that go into whether women will find you desirable. Smell is a big one.
A group of European researchers published a study in the journal Personality and Individual Differences in 2008 examining male and female differences on “sensory reliance in mate choice.”
- In other words, they were looking at what senses were most important for men and women when choosing a mate.
STUDY:
The researchers sent out surveys to 717 European students asking them to answer questions about senses and attraction.
They asked questions about what senses were most important in:
- Choosing a potential lover
- Sexual arousal outside sexual activity
- Sexual arousal during sexual activity
- Meal choice
- Things that attract attention
- Stimulating memories
- Flower choice
- Pet choice
All these different areas were used to determine whether and how a person uses their senses to be drawn to or away from various things across many aspects of life.
The researchers included the following senses:
- Visual
- Auditory (Sound)
- Olfactory (Smell)
- Gustatory (Taste)
- Tactile cues (Touch)
- Imaginary sense (Fantasies/Thoughts)
RESULTS:
The researchers did a number of analyses on what senses tended to have the biggest impact for men and women.
Men and women significantly differed in the following ways:
- Lover choice:
-
- For men, VISUAL was most important.
- For women, OLFACTORY (smell) was most important.
- Sexual arousal during sexual activity:
-
- For men, again, VISUAL was most important.
- For women, TOUCH was most important, followed by:
- BODY SMELL (#2)
-
- IMAGINARY (#3)
- SEXUAL SOUNDS (#4)
- Women rated VISUAL, SMELL (non-body origin), and MUSIC as not important in arousal during sexual activity.
- Sexual arousal during non-sexual activity:
-
- Women rated IMAGINATION (fantasy/thoughts) as the most important sense that causes arousal during non-sexual activity.
- When asked whether they found perfume arousing during non-sexual activity, women were more likely to say yes than men!
- Meal choice:
-
- Men and women weren’t significantly different in this area.
- They both rated TASTE as most important, followed by SMELL, VISUAL, and finally TACTILE (in food, this would be texture).
- Landscape, attention (what keeps their attention in a new place):
-
- Women more highly rated OLFACTORY than men.
- Men and women both rated VISUAL as the most important.
- Landscape, memory (what stays in their memory about a place):
-
- No differences between men and women were.
- Both rated VISUAL first.
- Flower choice:
-
- Both rated VISUAL first.
- But women rated OLFACTORY more than men.
- Pet choice:
-
- Both rated VISUAL first.
- Women rated TOUCH more than men.
DISCUSSION:
-
- What do we learn from all these results?
- Women seem to be more SCENT-driven while men are more VISUALLY-driven.
Women rate BODY SMELL as most important when choosing a lover.
Women rate BODY SMELL as second most important in arousal during sexual activity (second to TOUCH).
Women were more likely to say SMELL was important in other ways, too, such as keeping their attention in an unfamiliar landscape as well as when choosing a flower.
The analysis also indicated that women had more COMPLEX senses of smell. They responded very differently to body smell vs. environmental, animal, or object smells.
Men responded to all sources of smell in the same way (something either smells good or bad).
Reference
Havlicek, J., Saxton, T. K., Roberts, S. C., Jozifkova, E., Lhota, S., Valentova, J., & Flegr, J. (2008). He sees, she smells? Male and female reports of sensory reliance in mate choice and non-mate choice contexts. Personality and Individual Differences, 45, 565-570. Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886908002250
