There's No Phere There
Finally, somebody's come out with an article about the bullshit claims about pheromones. As I've noted before, we lack solid evidence that humans have a working vomeronasal organ, the thingie that would be required to process pheromones and email off little messages to the brain. On Slate, Randi Hutter Epstein goes further in clearing up the ever-present scent of bullshit about pheromones in magazines everywhere:
Last year, Cosmopolitan--another go-to source for medically oriented dating strategies--suggested you go panty-free so that the "odors in your pheromones--that natural chemical you emit that attracts men--may more easily waft into the air to be picked up subliminally by the primitive part of his brain."If only it were so. Pheromones, in scientific parlance, are aromatic chemicals emitted by one member of a species that affect another member of the same species, either by altering its hormones or by compelling it to change its behavior. When they work, they are truly bewitching. For instance, when a female silkworm moth wants to get her guy, she sprays a chemical called bombykol from her abdominal gland and her targeted male transforms into a sex slave, trailing the scent until he mounts her. It's an enviable feat. Still, it's a big leap to extrapolate from bugs to people--or even to lab mice, for that matter. No scientific study has ever proven conclusively that mammals have pheromones.
...the few human studies on the topic have tried to determine whether male volunteers wearing surgical masks coated with lab-made copulins were more aroused by photos of women than were volunteers wearing placebo-coated masks. They weren't.
The other so-called human pheromone that shows up in body care products is androstenedione, a chemical found in sweat. Androstenedione has been making the media rounds for years. Initial research in the early 1990s suggested that women were aroused by its musky smell, but later studies complicated that notion. One famous study from 1995--in which women were asked to sniff a bunch of sweaty T-shirts and choose the one they found most appealing--suggested that it wasn't the chemical itself that attracted women, but the way it mixed with a man's genes. (The women tended to choose T-shirts from men whose immune systems were most different from their own, suggesting that humans have an innate smell-based system to avoid mating with siblings.)
In 2007, astrostenedione's reputation as a scientific seduction tool should have crumbled even further: That's when Andreas Keller, a geneticist at Rockefeller University, discovered (subscription required) that, depending on the particular variation of the olfactory gene OR7D4 you possess, you may find androstenedione pleasantly floral, you may find it utterly repulsive, or you may not be able to smell it at all.
A true human pheromone would have universal appeal across the species. But the latest research on olfaction hints that our smell systems are much more individualized than we ever imagined. Scientists now estimate that humans have roughly 350 working olfactory genes, which may vary from person to person. Considering that spread, the idea of a truly effective bottled aphrodisiac seems silly--or as Rachel Herz, a Brown University psychologist and author of The Scent of Desire, calls it, a "commercial fantasy."
There you go again Amy, getting all "sciency" and stuff. That's so hot. It really turns me on. (/kidding)
BlogDog at August 23, 2011 4:30 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/08/23/theres_no_phere.html#comment-2435500">comment from BlogDogWe try!
Amy Alkon at August 23, 2011 5:00 AM
First of all, no one should ever be taking advice from Cosmopolitan. The crap that gets printed in that magazine is truly astonishing, and they looove quoting bullshit surveys (the last gem I saw in there was something like "studies show that men are more attracted to women with a dark ring around their iris." What studies? Where?! A handful of interns you asked during lunch?).
There's something to be said for liking one person's scent over another's, but I think the whole idea of human pheremones that you can splash on to attract people is bunk. And guys - ditch the cologne, okay? It's not sexy to give me a headache when I wander into your wake stream of scent.
Choika at August 23, 2011 5:49 AM
@Choika:
Women can take the advise to chill on the perfume too. My personal rule is that I shouldn't be able to smell a woman's perfume unless I'm close enough to her to touch her. If I can smell her from ten feet away it's just too much. Perfume should caress the senses, not grab the senses by the throat, throw them against the wall, and yell "Smell me mother f**ker!" in their face.
Mark HD at August 23, 2011 6:17 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/08/23/theres_no_phere.html#comment-2435601">comment from Mark HDI hate when I'm in a coffee place and some woman (almost always some woman) walks in and it's like you got slugged across the face with her perfume.
Amy Alkon at August 23, 2011 6:19 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/08/23/theres_no_phere.html#comment-2435604">comment from ChoikaFirst of all, no one should ever be taking advice from Cosmopolitan.
Well, no, but this pheremones!! crap is everywhere.
Amy Alkon at August 23, 2011 6:20 AM
I hear ya about the perfume/cologne thing. One of my brothers used to bathe in his cologne, until I told him to knock it off. That was after he came into my house one afternoon, and I was upstairs. I yelled to him, "Hey, brother, I'll be down in a minute!" and he was all "how did you know it was me?" which is when I said "because you smell like a French bordello, I can smell you from a mile away!" Hasn't happened since.
Flynne at August 23, 2011 7:05 AM
I work on insect pheromones, and you're right: we haven't found a substance that attracts women in short skirts and high heels to men in party shirts the way a female moth's pheromones bring in males. So the claims of perfumers are bunk.
That's a narrow definition of pheromones, though, and it's unlikely it holds for any mammals. As the article says, humans have a fairly well-documented ability to determine genetic compatibility through smell. Other mammals do this using their vomeronasal organ, and they're much better at it than we are (they can even distinguish between individuals) but we have retained that ability though we've lost the organ. Though that doesn't qualify as a "true human pheromone" (we are not moths!), we do use smells to subconsciously guide our choices.
Josh at August 23, 2011 7:40 AM
Sometimes when I get on the elevator in my office building, someone has left a perfume cloud behind long after they exited. This isn't nearly as bad as the perfume/cologne+cigarette smell.
I know it doesn't make "pheremone" claims, but I think Axe and the similiar products are some of the worst products to hit the market, ever. They all stink and young guys will absolutely BATHE in them.
ahw at August 23, 2011 7:46 AM
I'm super-sensitive to perfumes - a lot of them give me hives and rashes if I touch them, even if I'm touching a surface someone else with perfume on touched. I absolutely HATE working with people who bathe in them. I had a coworker (gone now, thank God) whose perfume gave me an instant headache the second he walked by because he reeked of some horrible cologne. I can't even go into a Bath and Body Works because I'll start itching and turn red.
I do think there is something to be said for liking someone's scent - I could happily spend hours snurfling Dearly Beloved's neck and routinely steal his T-shirts. But he doesn't wear cologne, thank god. Just soap.
Choika at August 23, 2011 8:09 AM
Perfumes, pretty much all of them, make my husband sick, so I've grown to like some scented oils I bought at Ren Faire. They're very subtle: You can't smell them on me unless your nose is in my collarbone.
A lot of people make the mistake of applying perfume and cologne until they can smell it on themselves. I suspect this is why old ladies tend to marinate in the stuff. A reduced sense of smell + cheap perfume = headache.
Overall, I try to buy as many unscented products as possible. No one can smell my oils at all if they're competing with my soap, body lotion, shampoo and conditioner.
MonicaP at August 23, 2011 9:12 AM
The next bullshit thing to be shot down is the overhyped effect of dopamine on human behavior.
Joe at August 23, 2011 9:30 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/08/23/theres_no_phere.html#comment-2435812">comment from JoeThe next bullshit thing to be shot down is the overhyped effect of dopamine on human behavior.
I always love when people make wildly broad claims like this. While we lack evidence of a working vomeronasal organ in humans, I just upped the dopamine flow in my brain (by switching from Ritalin to Adderall, which is not only a dopamine reuptake inhibitor but pushes some dopamine out to be used by the brain). I now realize that I have suffered unnecessarily for 47 years to pay attention and stay focused, and suffered throughout my writing life.
I am not lazy, but without this drug -- without dopamine being pushed out into my brain -- it is sometimes almost physically painful to try to concentrate. My ADHD seems to have gotten worse in the past few years, and because I'm a hard worker, I just struggled to do my work. Now, it's absolutely incredible. All I have to do is decide to work, decide to pay attention and focus, and I do. Sunday, I wrote from 9 am until almost 9 at night on my next book and on my column, with very few breaks. This is absolutely incredible.
Furthermore, Emily Deans writes terrific pieces at Psych Today on the effect of dopamine, and Steven Platek, likewise, is a reliable source about what can and cannot be said based on what the evidence is.
Amy Alkon at August 23, 2011 10:26 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/08/23/theres_no_phere.html#comment-2435813">comment from Amy AlkonDeans: http://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/emily-deans-md
Piece on dopamine by Deans:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201105/dopamine-the-left-brain-women-and-men
There are more.
Amy Alkon at August 23, 2011 10:27 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/08/23/theres_no_phere.html#comment-2435814">comment from Amy AlkonDeans' primer on dopamine here:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201105/dopamine-primer
Amy Alkon at August 23, 2011 10:28 AM
Actually the advice that women should go panty free is excellent. Um, shorter skirts too.
jerry at August 23, 2011 10:47 AM
Amy, my comment was phrased poorly. The stress is on "overhyped" as in overhyping/exagerating the effect of dopamine on the brain, not that the fact that dopamine has an effect doesn't exist.
Dopamine has now become the go to excuse for just about any behavior. While dopamine has an effect, for most of the population, it generally doesn't override our ability to act like rational human beings. Read the pop-psych literature and that is the claim being made. Even if we allow that dopamine may alter our decision making capacity, it doesn't destroy us and make us mindless robots.
Joe at August 23, 2011 4:35 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/08/23/theres_no_phere.html#comment-2436816">comment from JoeThanks, Joe, for clarifying.
Amy Alkon at August 23, 2011 5:15 PM
"First of all, no one should ever be taking advice from Cosmopolitan. The crap that gets printed in that magazine is truly astonishing"
Even I couldn't believe the depths they plumb to when I saw them recently genuinely advise that if you think your bf is cheating, you should physically crush his testicles. Seriously, wtf. Advocating criminally violent assault that could leave him hospitalized, sterile and possibly permanently debilitated? Hilarious, if you're 12. Imagine a men's magazine openly advocating physical violence against a woman, on her genitals, if you think she is cheating on you.
Lobster at August 24, 2011 5:28 PM
"Last year, Cosmopolitan--another go-to source for medically oriented dating strategies--suggested you go panty-free"
OTOH, going panty-free might make you feel more sexy and confident and possibly have you thinking more about sex than you otherwise would, which in turn could indeed have some of the desired effect - just not from pheromones - you would just be behaving differently. Actually in that respect, just about anything could have 'some effect' on a date if you believe it will - e.g. a lucky charm. If the conversation turns to your lack of panties, he'll probably have a dopamine rush too.
Lobster at August 24, 2011 5:33 PM
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