Scenario : I am in a crowd. My eyes are closed and not allowed to touch anything.
Can I detect my SO just by smell ?
Yes but not because of pheromones, humans can’t do that it’s incel pseudoscience. It’s because when you spend a lot of time with someone your biospheres intermingle which causes you both to release similar smells as the same bacteria colonies eat and shit all over your bodies.
" I adore the way your bacterial colonies’ shit smells on you, darling"
The hallmark cards write themselves.
I kid you not I noticed when I had been with my partner for some time my skin started smelling like hers
and if you’ve ever eaten her ass, your insides will smell like hers aswell.
Probably not. The studies on human pheromones is inconclusive at best, the space is full of snake oil and hucksters (further discrediting it), and you may be having a psychosomatic effect.
No study has led to the isolation of true human sex pheromones, although various researchers have investigated the possibility of their existence.
I dated someone whose arousal had a very distinct scent. I don’t think it would be obvious to everyone, but it was obvious to me.
so to find your partner in a crowd while wearing a blindfold all you’d have to do is take your pants off?
I’m single but I notice everyone has a specific smell. Try smelling some of your loved ones’ clothes and you get what I mean. I figure that this would be especially apparently for the visually impaired.
I think it depends on how good your sense of smell is. Mine is really bad, so if I had my eyes covered and was wearing noise cancelling headphones, I wouldn’t be able to tell if there are people in my area unless they haven’t showered in a while… Being able to distinguish between people? I can’t even differentiate between the smells of popcorn and peanut butter.
On the other hand, I know someone who was able to smell a “coppery” smell on someone which no one else notice. Eventually she convinced him to see a doctor and they found a rare condition that I can’t remember which.
If you’re asking in the context of individuals who are already a couple trying to pinpoint one another by olfactory memory, it’s technically not impossible, but you’d qualify for hyperosmia if it was, since it’s not exactly like DNA, for a lack of a better way to explain it. You would probably smell things about them, as dogs do, but to the knowledge of current science which in its current olfactory capacity hasn’t found a level where it became apparent, nobody has an “odorprint” in the same way we have fingerprints.
If you’re asking in the context of you looking for who will be your future significant other, this just doesn’t happen. I know there’s a large section of romantic science centered around smells, but this is predominantly in the context of you being able to maintain genetic diversity (flashbacks of the TV show Brink intensify, gawd I miss that show) and completely outside the realm of matchmaking, since it wouldn’t even make sense on a compatibility level.
That was unreasonably hard to read.
How so?
The complexity of language is way above the complexity of the concepts you’re trying to communicate.
There is way more to navigate here than people make it out to be. It’s one of those things that can be deconstructed multiple times over.
Wrong. And using big words when they are not necessary does not make you right or sound smart btw. “to the knowledge of current science which in its current olfactory capacity” could be summed up as “currently, science”. Brevity and quality of content can show more intelligence than big words like “olfactory capacity”. Now onto my long winded explanation of why you are wrong:
Everyone has a micro biome on their skin. Each type of bacteria will give off a specific smell. While the populations of bacteria will change over time, the major populations will stay fairly constant, leading to a recognizable smell that each person has. In addition, an amazing amount of chemicals are secreted in sweat. These chemicals not only have their own scent and are determined by genetics, but which chemicals and at what concentrations will encourage/discourage certain populations of bacteria to flourish or not. All of this does produce a fairly static “odor print”. ”Fairly” being key as you are right in that it is not as static or unique as fingerprints (interesting research has suggested that fingerprints aren’t as unique as we once thought but that’s for another Ted talk).
As for the research, most of the modern research has suggested that it’s actually mostly immune-related genetics that compliment your own (would make a stronger immune system if combine with with yours in an offspring) that your nose is looking for, not just DNA that is dissimilar to yours, which is what it would be if aiming for purely expanding genetic diversity. If this research continues to hold up, you are absolutely wrong in saying it doesn’t play a role in choosing a significant other, and the fact that research is suggesting this at this time makes you completely out of line to just say “this just doesn’t happen.” It does make sense on a genetic compatibility level, as it does in that finding your partner’s smell appealing will factor into your attraction to them. Sorry you don’t find it believable or whatever, but your beliefs do not dictate science.
Then it’s a good thing I don’t try to sound “right” or “smart” then just because this hypergraphic individual tends to phrase things according to a different selection of words than the brute before me. None of what you describe is the same as there being a stable “odor signature”, or if it were possible, you would think dogs or perhaps forensic scientists could pull it off without any form of mistaken identity, unless there’s a number of citations pointing in the opposite viewpoint that this so-called “wannabe science” lacks.
Removed by mod
Except for the fact you’re far from the only questioner of this who has attempted to slam down on me for what you seem not to realize is an actual disorderly term even in response to citations, which the other side doesn’t give, though I fail to see how I imply chauvinism here.
There are certain people I know who have a very distinctive smell that I would recognise… But realistically I’d have to get very close to reliably smell it.
Yes. It is well established by both subjective experience and science that humans can identify other humans by scent.
It’s also established by science that even the subliminally-detected presence of non-unique chemicals will alter people’s behavior. People say that’s not a “pheromone” but I disagree.
Looks like you read the title and not the included text. You could find your SO in a crowd by smell alone? I don’t think so. Being able to identify your partner by smell if they’re standing in front of you, sure, I can buy that.
My SO knows what my farts smell like, does that count?
What do you mean, the scent of your farts is stable over time ? mine is ever-evolving
Yeah I have a signature fragrance…
