A Look at Human Pheromones
Pheromones are essentially chemical messengers released by
animals that affect other animals. Usually they serve to
communicate something about territory, reproduction and caring
of offspring, the presence of danger, or even the presence of a
rival. All animals from insects to humans have pheromones and
they have a powerful effect on behavior. Pheromones have even
been classified based on their uses into three classes:
Primer pheromones shift the hormonal balance in the receiver;
releaser pheromones produce specific behavior patterns like
avoidance or attraction; finally, information pheromones convey
information about the producer to the receiver, including
health, fertility, et cetera.
Human pheromones are continuously studied by scientists in an
effort to understand the extent to which they affect us. Some
scientists claim that the organ responsible for detecting
pheromones in most mammals, the vomeronasal organ, is almost
nonexistent in humans and that we have evolved to the point
where humans no longer use these chemical odor signals. Other
scientists dispute this with evidence from experiments that
human pheromones have a powerful effect on other humans and can
change the ovulation cycle of women and perceived attractiveness
of potential mates. Experiments using male sweat have shown that
human females react to male pheromones by increasing their
fertile cycles and delaying the onset of menopause.
Synthesized human pheromones like androstenedione and
estratetraenol, used topically, have been studied and shown to
significantly increase the frequency of sociosexual behavior in
participants using the pheromones as opposed to the placebo.
These results have helped launch a variety of products claiming
to have a put a ""pheromone to attract women"" in a bottle or
vice versa. Some of these products are undoubtedly simply
fragrant water, but others that actually contain synthesized
pheromones have been purported to work effectively. The caveat
seems to be that their effects are dependent on psychological
and social factors that also strongly influence human behavior.
Perhaps the confidence boost that pheromone wearers have is what
makes them seem more attractive to potential mates, not the
chemicals themselves.
The debate over the extent to which human pheromones affect
human behavior continues, and like many scientific puzzles,
studies seem to contradict each other. Moreover, human behavior,
a thing affected by a variety of factors, does not lend itself
easily scientific studies easily.