It turns out: Women can smell when a man is single
In one experiment, women smelled single men more strongly. This may have something to do with testosterone levels – or that single men are simply less clean.
Women can sense when a man is single, scientists say. According to them, they smell different and stronger than men who are in a relationship. Specialists reported the results of the experiment in the journal Frontiers in Psychology – Reports unilad.com.
It has previously been suggested that testosterone, which is thought to strongly influence the amount of body odor, is higher in single men due to competition for mates. At the same time
People in relationships tend to have lower levels of testosterone to maintain their relationship with their partners.
In the current study, 91 men were given a white T-shirt and told to move into it. The 46 bachelors and the 45 partnered men had to ensure that “large amounts of sweat were absorbed into the armpits of the shirt”.
The shirts were then given to 82 heterosexual women to sniff. The women were also shown a picture of the man who smelled bad.
The study authors wrote:
“In line with our hypothesis, single men smelled stronger than partnered men. We also found that the faces of single men were rated as more masculine than the faces of partners, but only among women in a relationship.”
According to the paper, body odor may help steer women toward more suitable partners, but they drew attention to the fact that strong scents don’t help you find love.
According to the authors:
“It may be evolutionarily advantageous for females to be able to detect mating scents and to avoid approaching males because they may present a relatively rare opportunity.”
But there may be other reasons for stronger body odor – for example, that single men are less clean than those in a relationship.
“This claim is supported by research showing that single men experience poorer physical and mental health than their partners, which may manifest in poor hygiene and therefore a different odor,” they wrote.
