What Do Men Really Want?
Beauty, grace, exotic good looks, youth. What is it that can turn a man's fancy? It's a question that has bedeviled the species for thousands of years. The female half of humankind spends untold billions of dollars each year on clothes, shoes, cosmetics, hair spray and perfumes. All in pursuit of idealized beauty. And while some self-esteem gurus might argue that it is done to make oneself feel good, others might be willing to admit that it is done in large part to attract men.
Does it work? Now new research reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that it may all be in vain. The study suggests that men, as we all know, are animals at heart, and that the natural smell of an ovulating woman may be the best way to capture a male mate.
In other animals, olfactory factors are key triggers to mating behavior and that male testosterone levels are influenced by odor signals emitted by ovulating fertile females. Psychological scientists Saul L. Miller and Jon K. Maner from Florida State University wanted to see if a similar response occurs in humans. They ran two studies in which women wore tee shirts for 3 nights during various phases of their menstrual cycles. Male volunteers smelled one of the tee shirts that had been worn by a female participant. Some of the tee shirts had been worn by women during their peak ovulation and some of the tee shirts were worn while the women were not-ovulating. In addition, some of the male volunteers smelled control tee shirts that had not been worn by anyone. Saliva samples for testosterone analysis were collected before and after the men smelled the shirts.
Results revealed that men who smelled tee shirts of ovulating women subsequently had higher levels of testosterone than men who smelled tee shirts worn by non-ovulating women or men who smelled the control shirts. In addition, after smelling the shirts, the men rated the odors on pleasantness and rated the shirts worn by ovulating women as the most pleasant smelling.
Miller and Maner wrote that "the present research is the first to provide direct evidence that olfactory cues to female ovulation influence biological responses in men." In other words, this study suggests that testosterone levels may be responsive to smells indicating when a woman is fertile. The authors finally conclude that this biological response may promote mating-related behavior by males.
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