Women rely partly on smell when choosing friends

(arstechnica.com)

33 points | by PaulHoule 10 hours ago

7 comments

  • Frieren 10 hours ago
    > Wedekind found that the women overwhelmingly preferred the T-shirt smells of men who had the most dissimilar MHCs to their own.

    Is deodorant making people more likely to have kids with closely genetically individuals? It would be funny that being cleaner and polite increased genetic diseases. And I do not mean close relatives, but non relatives that just by chance are genetically similar.

    Is there any study about how generic diversity has changed thru the centuries?

  • JasserInicide 10 hours ago
    Read about this singles dating event in Russia where they took cotton swabs swiped underneath each person's armpits and put them into little glass jars. Everyone then went around smelling each one and matched with each other based on which jar scent they liked the most. Wish I still had it. Definitely a novel if not more primal way to choose a partner.
  • ThrowawayR2 10 hours ago
    Previously posted 7 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43731609
  • travisgriggs 10 hours ago
    The part about the effect of oral contraceptive was intriguing, but they say no more about that.
  • throwanem 10 hours ago
    This is a successful replication; I first recall hearing of the same result in the 90s. Check PubMed, if it's still up at time of reading.
  • alganet 9 hours ago
    Nice try.
  • armSixtyFour 10 hours ago
    This is true of most people. If you meet someone and they don't smell very good, you're unlikely to become friends. Science.
    • Smithalicious 10 hours ago
      If you want to make random claims sound probable, just punctuate them with "Science."