Like animals, humans subconsciously sense their fellow human beings upon first meeting. Those who share similar body odors are more likely to become friends, according to a study.
Like attracts like. This proverb is reinforced by a recent study published in the journal NewsScientist† According to researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, people with a similar body odor are more likely to be friends later.
Are animals the only ones who rely on scent before getting to know each other? Dog owners know this situation well, when two canids meet, they sniff each other before playing, or bark at each other. According to Inbal Ravreby, researcher who conducted this study, this feeling would also play an essential role in people’s social interactions.
For their research, the specialists relied on twenty platonic friendships. These twenty couples, made up of males and females equally, say they were close from the first meeting.
The researchers analyzed the t-shirt worn by the participants using an “eNose,” a device that can detect the chemical components of a scent. “The nose revealed that body odor was more similar between friend pairs than between random pairs formed by mixing participants”says the study.
The researchers also asked 25 volunteers to sniff the pairs of friends’ t-shirts and then randomly sniff the t-shirts. They came to the same conclusions as the mechanical nose.
To eliminate any external factor that could affect body odor, the researchers brought together 17 volunteers, strangers to each other. They asked them to have nonverbal social interactions. Subsequently, the participants indicated via a questionnaire whether or not they could enter into a friendly relationship. At the same time, the “eNose” compared the chemical components of the participants.
Results ? In 71% of the cases, the “eNose” “guessed” which people might later become friends. “The results of our research suggest that our nose plays a more important role than previously thought in our choice of friends,” concludes Inbal Ravreby in a press release.
(ETX Daily Up)