Love At First Scent

Love At First Scent

Seriously? A secret weapon for securing love.

Smell is our unique fingerprint

Are you surprised that a mother can sniff out her new born baby within hours of the birth? This is one of the most overlooked facts about humans: smell provides one of the best indicators of who we are.

Humans have unique, genetically determined body odors, called odortypes, which help distinguish individuals from one another, even pick out a mate.

When we are attracted to somebody's smell, it could be because subconsciously we like their genes, according to BBC Science.

Can you sniff out your perfect partner?

Although subtle and behind the scene, scent could be the hidden factor that explains who we end up with, researchers claim.

"We are all equipped to select a romantic partner who smells good to us, and that choice has profound biological implications… Scent-based cues help us to detect our optimal partners, who will most likely to stay faithful to us and to create healthy children with us," wrote Elizabeth Svoboda, an award winning science journalist.

In his notable study the "sweaty T-shirt study," Claus Wedekind, a Swiss biological researcher concluded with high degree of confidence that women are able to sniff out the T-shirts of men with an MHC (major histocompatibility complex) most dissimilar from their own, which allows them to produce more disease-resistant offspring together.

Furthermore, studies have found that the similarity of MHC couples share is directly correlated to the possibility of cheating. In other words, dissimilarity endows sustainability and faithfulness. Women are more sensitive to smell and consistently outperform men in sniffing out MHC compatibility.

So yes, we are capable of sniffing out our perfect partners, especially women.

Scent has a big impact on us

Perhaps the most primal of senses, smell holds surprising sway over cognition, emotion and even other senses. Studies have confirmed that odors affect our ability to process visual stimuli. For example, Alan Hirsch, MD, a neurologist and psychiatrist found that testers who sniffed grapefruit aromas judged women to be five years younger than they actually were.

Scent reveals more than biological traits

Not just our genetic identity, smell also strongly connects with our own memories and psychological tendencies.

The entire industry of perfume is based on our unique relationship with smell. Most people use fragrances to smell and feel good.

What fragrances are you drawn to? Scent preferences reveal personality traits, research has shown.

Love is in the air, indeed

Scent provides important biological and psychological clues, which can take us far down the love lane. Utilize our primal instinct to sniff out a perfect partner. Before you reach the level of being able to sniff each other's T-shirt, get to the perfume counters together and see if your preferred scents agree to and inspire each other.

Want to check out your scent partner?

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