Smell ya later!
If you’ve had trouble dating, it might be because single men stink — literally — and women have the ability to sniff out married men among the bachelors, according to a study published in the Frontiers in Psychology medical journal.
Researchers at Australia’s Macquarie University proved that single men smell more strongly than guys who are booed up.
“From an evolutionary perspective, it may be advantageous for women to detect the chemosignals that connote coupledom and ultimately avoid courting partnered males (especially with offspring) due to the relatively reduced resources they can offer,” authors of the study reported.
Pheromones — scents we emit due to our hormones — play a large, evolutionary role in partnership and attraction. Earlier this year, single ladies were opting to “vab” instead of dowsing themselves in perfume when hitting the town, convinced that the scent of their vaginal secretions on their neck would reel potential partners in.
Birth control pills have even been slammed by women for affecting the way they see their partners. Podcaster Elisha Covey previously claimed going off birth control changed the way she saw — and smelled — her husband, and is convinced the widely touted pill could be spoiling your dating life.
As for the stench of singletons, researchers asked 82 heterosexual women to sniff the t-shirt sweat of 91 different men — 45 cuffed guys and 46 singles.
They provided the participating men with clean, white tees and asked them to wear it for 24 hours for maximum pit perspiration, since a “significant amount of sweat” is absorbed in that area.
After collecting the smelly garments, the participating women sniffed sex different shirts and were provided photographs of the corresponding men.
“Consistent with our hypothesis, single men’s BO was rated as smelling stronger than the BO of partnered men,” the study authors wrote. “We also found that single men’s faces were rated more masculine than partnered men’s, but only among partnered women.”
The study lacked testosterone testing in the singled and partnered men, however, other studies have showed that the lonesome singles have more testosterone.
The scientists couldn’t determine why exactly the difference in smells were present, but study author Mehmet Mahmut told Newsweek that the hormones play a role in “mate-seeking behavior.”
“We know from previous research that higher testosterone is linked to stronger body odor,” he said. “Potentially single men do have higher levels of testosterone.”