Would you believe that your smell is the key to choosing the right partner? Do you know that a lot of psychological and biological information is stored in your smell?
Body odors can tell a lot about your health, for example, diabetes has the smell of rotten apples. Men find the smell of a woman's body more pleasant and attractive the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, when women are most fertile. During menstruation, they are least attractive to them.
Although scents can change based on diet and health, it is your smell is unique, because of your genetics. Body odor is specific enough, and the sense of smell is precise enough, that you can smell a lot of interesting things.
What is HLA?
In one study, women were given T-shirts worn by random men and asked to rank them according to how pleasant they smelled. Their order of preference followed a pattern called diversity human leukocyte antigen (HLA).
HLA (human leukocyte antigen) is a group of proteins that help the immune system distinguish between cells that belong to you and cells that belong to someone else - and are therefore potential pathogens. Pathogens are microorganisms that cause disease in the host. The genetic record also codes for other proteins in your immune system, and based on these, scientists can see what level of protection the immune system can provide.
Your HLA is different from others. From a genetic point of view, it is advantageous to have a child with someone who has a different HLA, as the children will have better resistance to pathogens. Although one would think that genetic information hidden in body odors is used to select mates, this is not true. We may prefer certain smells, but this does not play a significant role in choosing a partner.
V studies of nearly 3,700 married couples, people were as likely to end up with an HLA-dissimilar partner as chance. We may prefer certain smells, and there may be a genetic reason for this, but we are not guided by smells when choosing who we marry.
Different HLA leads to greater sexual satisfaction. Photo: We Vibe Wow Tech / UnsplashHLA affects sexuality
Although HLA does not affect mate choice, it does affect sexual well-being. Couples who had high HLA dissimilarity had the highest level of sexual satisfaction and the highest level of desire to have children.
This association is more pronounced in women. Women who were in relationships with HLA-matched men reported greater sexual dissatisfaction and less desire to have children.
From an evolutionary point of view, the choice in women is quite logical. In nature, females usually choose males, since the mother is the one who invests the most in raising children and has the most to lose with a partner who is genetically inferior. The female is therefore looking for clues about his quality.
That is why in the past, men were often painted, performed dances, sang songs - with this they wanted to prove their genetic quality.
How does smell affect the choice of a partner?
In the second studies married women brought their husbands' T-shirts, which they mixed with random men's T-shirts. Did married women choose their husband's scent? Is not necessarily. There was no evidence that they put their partner first because of smell.
V other studies to them, the sample of strangers smelled stronger than that of her husband. Why? It is speculated that this may be due to the connection between high testosterone levels and a stronger smell.
Men over 40 devote more time to family. Photo: Caroline Hernandez/UnsplashThere is a link between testosterone decline and aging in men over 40, which may be due to things that happen throughout life. As men get older, they prioritize children and family. Men who are in a relationship, and even more so those who have children, have lower testosterone.
Do humans use genetic information hidden in body odor to choose mates? No. One reason may be that reality is more complex to accurately use odor information. Our other senses can distort the information we take in from smell.
There are more important things than body odor and genetic makeup when choosing a mate.
