Most women have had the mysterious experience of being turned on by a partner’s smell. A friend of mine once told me her ex-boyfriend’s scent made her feel “safe and drawn to him,” and that his smell was so distinct and attractive that even after a sweaty workout, she found him appealing. “The more exercise, the better.”
Though personality and looks definitely play a part in initial attraction, smell may play a larger role than we suspect. That inexplicable “chemistry” you feel with someone who may not fit your normal dating profile? It could be a subconscious scent drawing you to him or her.
Studies have found that how a person smells gives us clues to their genetic make-up, and thus, their potential to be a compatible mate. On a subconscious level, decoding a scent gives us a powerful tool to ensure our kids will be healthy, and our orgasms will be plentiful.
The first study to indicate that chemical signals play a role in attraction was conducted by Claud Wedekind over a decade ago. Forty-four men wore the same T-shirt for three days. They refrained from deodorants and scented soaps so they wouldn’t interfere with their natural smell. Women then sniffed the shirts and indicated which ones smelled the best to them. By comparing the DNA of the women and men, the researchers found that women didn’t just choose their favorite scent randomly. They preferred the scent of man whose major histocompatibility complex (MHC)—a series of genes involved in our immune system—was most different from their own.
Researchers knew to look at the MHC because of its importance in animal’s sexual preferences. In mice, it has long been known that MHC not only helps ward off infection, but it also plays a role in scent and mate selection.
From an evolutionary perspective, choosing a mate with a different immune system makes survival sense. Kids of parents with different immune genes are more likely to be disease-resistant and are therefore more likely to survive. The women in this study also reported liking the scents that reminded them of their current or previous boyfriends, showing that MHC attraction is consistent. And because MHC profiles differ greatly from one person to the next, there is no universally “good” smell. One woman’s Romeo was another woman’s raunchy.
