Chemosensory Communication of Gender Information: Masculinity Bias in Body Odor Perception and Femininity Bias Introduced by Chemosignals During Social Perception

Abstract

Human body odor is a source of important social information. In this study, we explore whether the sex of an individual can be established based on smelling axillary odor and whether exposure to male and female odors biases chemosensory and social perception. In a double-blind, pseudo-randomized application, 31 healthy normosmic heterosexual male and female raters were exposed to male and female chemosignals (odor samples of 27 heterosexual donors collected during a cardio workout) and a no odor sample. Recipients rated chemosensory samples on a masculinity-femininity scale and provided intensity, familiarity and pleasantness ratings. Additionally, the modulation of social perception (gender-neutral faces and personality attributes) and affective introspection (mood) by male and female chemosignals was assessed. Male and female axillary odors were rated as rather masculine, regardless of the sex of the donor. As opposed to the masculinity bias in the odor perception, a femininity bias modulating social perception appeared. A facilitated femininity detection in gender-neutral faces and personality attributes in male and female chemosignals appeared. No chemosensory effect on mood of the rater was observed. The results are discussed with regards to the use of male and female chemosignals in affective and social communication.

Do Masculine Men Smell Better? An Association Between Skin Color Masculinity and Female Preferences for Body Odor

“…An inverse relationship between odor pleasantness and intensity has been reported in other studies (Doty et al 1978;Mutic et al 2016). Here, skin color masculinity negatively predicted the maleness factor that included masculinity, dominance and intensity ratings.…”

Interdisciplinary challenges for elucidating human olfactory attractiveness

“…Tightly related to this, the concept of stereotype is also worth considering as it may have a considerable influence on body odour perception. Gender stereotypes have seldom been investigated in the field of social olfaction (see [142] for perfumes, and [105,143] for body odour), despite being a potentially significant source of cognitive modulation of body odour perception.…”

The scent of the other women: Body odor-induced behavioral and physiological effects on face categorization

“…This assumption appears plausible as, in a broader chemosignaling context, women are known to be more receptive to subtle chemosensory signals in emotional contexts [56,59], perchance more strongly interfering with the dominant visual information. Vice versa, the female body odor is able to induce a chemosensory judgment effect towards a facilitated perception of feminine features in social and emotional tasks [46].…”