Pheromones: Do they exist in humans?
The word "pheromone" was first introduced by Peter Karlson and Martin Lüscher in 1959. Pheromones are chemicals that are released by an animal and affect the behavior of other members of the same species. A very common example includes when a female dog is "in heat" she attracts male dogs. This attraction is important in this species for reproductive purposes; the existence and importance of pheromones in humans has been examined since the identification of the pheromone bombykol in silk moths. So how are pheromones important to human beings?
Most of the research and identification of human pheromones are related to opposite sex attraction and sexual activity.
There are two varieties of pheromones that have been identified: releaser and primer pheromones. Releaser pheromones cause an immediate behavior reaction; primer pheromones cause long-time physiological changes.
In mammals, the vomeronasal organ (VNO) is a set of receptors that respond to pheromones and is used to detect pheromones. In humans, the VNO is extremely small and has no receptors. There has been no evidence of humans displaying any releaser pheromones, but the existence of primer pheromones are what researchers have suggested. A specific study of the effect of the smell of women's sweat suggests that during the time of ovulation, men's testosterone secretion increases (Miller & Maner, 2010). Another study relates to the timing of women's menstrual cycle and the synchronization of women who spend a lot of time together. The study's findings concluded that women who spend a lot of time together seem to have synchronized menstrual cycles and it suggests that pheromones are responsible for the synchronization ( McClintock, 1971; Weller, Weller, Koresh-Kamin, & Ben-Shoshan, 1999; Weller, Weller & Roizman, 1999). The possibility of primer pheromones in humans has provided a marketing tool for companies of products to increase sexual attractiveness for men and women. Check out this video on an experiment conducted by ABC 20/20:
It is actually pretty popular to now by perfume with pheromones in it to attract the opposite sex and while not exactly advertising it for what it is, its ironic to think that love at first comes down to raw chemical attraction and that pheromones are important in the introduction to a possible mate process.
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