The way you smell can let people know if you're single or coupled up

The way you smell can offer useful insight into the state of your health, information about your diet and now – as researchers have found – hint on your dating life. A new research points to single men having stronger body odour than their counterparts who are in relationship. The study proffered some theories to explain why this might be so.

The scent of singledom

A team of researchers from the Macquarie University in Australia recruited 82 heterosexual girls to help determine the frame odours of six male participants. After analysing the data, the researchers concluded that the participants who were not married or in a relationship had stronger odour than those who have intimate partners. Mehmet Mahmut, one of the study authors said:

Stronger body odour might assist you to stand out more. It would possibly signal dominance.

However, the study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, could not establish exactly why this difference exists, although the authors proffered some plausible theories.

Testosterone and smell

Scientists have since determined evidence of a correlation between high testosterone levels and stronger body odour. In a BBC Future article, Dr Mahmut explained why this was the case:

We know there is an association between a reduction in testosterone and getting older, which might be due to the things going on in a married man's life as he gets over 40 – prioritising children and things like that.

Therefore, men who are in relationships, and more so those that have had children, have lower testosterone, he added.

Existing literature suggests that women tend to smell differently when they’re ovulating thus attracting men whose testosterone levels are at their highest. The researchers are hopeful their findings offer some insight into the science of attraction.

Sources used:

BBC Future: Why single people smell different

News Week: Single people smell different, according to science

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