If you want to know if you love him so, it’s in his…smell? Kathryn Eisman explores the latest lifestyle trend coming out of LA and questions whether we’ve forgotten to use our nose when it comes to picking our mate.
By Kathryn Eisman
At a party in West Hollywood last Saturday evening a dozen thoroughly modern single ladies went sniffing around for love. Literally.
Fed up with using their eyes (or even their heads and hearts) to find a suitable partner, they were using their noses – participating in the latest dating trend sweeping through America- Pheromone Parties.
Pheromone Parties are dating events like no other. Participants are asked to sleep in a plain T-shirt three nights in a row to capture their “odor imprint”. On the 4th evening they are invited to bring their tee with them, in a zip lock bag. The goal is for it to be smelled by other participants, all of whom are trying to sniff out a love match.
Here are the rules:
- Bags are labeled pink for girl, blue for boy. Each bag is assigned a number. Only the guest knows what their shirt’s number is.
- Bags are placed on a table. Guests smell the bags at their leisure throughout the party.
- If a guest finds the smell attractive, they take a picture with the bag at a photograph station. These pictures are projected as a slide show on the wall at the party.
- If you see a picture of a guest you find attractive holding your number, this is the green light to talk to them.
The parties first started as a dating experiment by a California woman who had grown tired of online dating. However, it turns out her theory has deep roots in science. Researchers have proven that humans can use scent to distinguish genetic combinations that could lead to weaker offspring.
In animals, sex pheromones indicate the availability of the female for breeding, while male animals emit pheromones to convey information about genetic suitability. Moths and butterflies can even detect a potential mate from as far as 10 km away…a helpful tool if you wear at a party!
So in 2013 have we forgotten to use our nose when it comes to finding a mate that get’s our heart in a flutter?
Not only do we mask our natural scent with layers of fragrance, but a research study revealed that birth-control pills interfere with a woman’s ability to accurately sniff Pheromones, directing her towards genetically unsuitable mates.
A study published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution, looked first at research that’s been conducted on women’s preferences for men. Women who aren’t on the pill have shown a preference for certain types of men while they’re ovulating: they prefer men with more traditionally masculine facial features, and have also been shown to prefer the smell of men who are genetically dissimilar (which in humanity’s earlier days, when inbreeding was a danger, would have been an advantage). Women on the pill don’t show these same preferences.
Not only does our aversion to using our noses potentially lead to less healthy children, it could also explain why some women wake up one day and are suddenly physically unattracted to their partner.
Of course, there are massive limitations to using your nose alone to find your life partner (e.g. there has to be a mutual personality compatibility, value system, respect and physical attraction, to name just a few essentials) but perhaps it’s time we brought a little National Geographic back into our dating lives. Sometimes nature knows more than match.com.
Twitter: @kathryneisman
