“Birds of a feather flock together” now has scientific basis!

Several experiments have shown that people with similar body odors are more likely to become instant friends.

The related paper was published in Science Advances on June 24.

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When we meet someone for the first time, there is sometimes “an immediate and strong resonance that makes us feel like we’ve known each other for years”, says Inbal Ravreby of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

She wondered if it had something to do with body odor, since previous research has found that people subconsciously take a sniff when they meet someone, for example by bringing their hand to their nose after shaking hands.

Ravreby and colleagues recruited 20 same-sex, non-romantic friends, half female and half male, who reported "love at first sight" with each other the first time they met.

Using an electronic nose, a device that senses the chemical composition of odors, the researchers sniffed the T-shirts worn by each participant and found that the smells of friends were more similar than those of random people.

After the electronic nose smelled the T-shirts of a control group of 25 independent adults, it also concluded that the smell of the friends group was closer to that of the random group.

Next, Ravreby and colleagues recruited 17 people they had never met and used an electronic nose to analyze their body odor.

Each person then takes turns playing a nonverbal game with another same-sex participant.

The experimental results are consistent with previous results: the two groups of people with similar smells are more likely to develop a liking for each other during the game.

Ravreby said the findings are significant because research shows that people tend to form friendships with people who are similar to themselves in age, race, education, religion, appearance, personality and values.

She said other mammals also use smell to judge friend from foe, such as two dogs sniffing each other's buttocks when they meet in a park.

In contrast, heterosexual people seem to be attracted to members of the opposite sex who smell different.

For example, one study found that women are more attracted to the scent of men with different immune genes, possibly because their pairings produce offspring with stronger immune systems.

Source: China Science Daily

Text: Li Muzi

Related paper information:

https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abn0154

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