Does Your Nose Help Pick Your Friends?

By: Bella Lee

Recently, researchers have been studying how certain people have similarities in their body odors. All people have their own odors, and like other mammals, smell might mean something to how humans interact.

Scientists who research olfaction (your sense of smell), are thinking about the molecules in the body. They might play an important role in making decisions. Because of this possibility, olfaction might also shape your personality.

Researchers looking into pairs of friends that “clicked” from the beginning found “intriguing evidence that each person’s body odor was closer to their friend’s than expected by chance.”

Scientists also said that friends have more similarities than strangers – not just hobbies, but also brain activity and appearance. There have been some experiments to test this. Inbal Ravreby, a lab researcher and graduate student, decided to find out if people had some in common through olfaction.

She had twenty pairs of friends lay off deodorant and after-shave and wear clean t-shirts provided by the lab. Ms. Ravreby and her colleagues then had twenty-five other volunteers assess the olfaction of the pairs of friends.

They found out that the pairs of friends had a more similar smell than strangers. This result shows that odor could be one of those things friends could pick up on when they start their relationship.

Now, scientists are still looking into our personal fragrances, personalities, and interactions.