Love, it seems, is all about scents and scentability

by Kristen Cole

Love is in the air, even if it's not Valentine's Day. Just ask Brown students.

Smell plays an important role in finding a mate, particularly for women, according to Rachel Herz, a visiting assistant professor of psychology who studies olfactory cognition and emotion.

Herz recently surveyed nearly 200 students about the importance of various physical traits in selecting a lover. Smell was more important for women than men, and looks were more important for men than women, according to her findings.

In fact, women considered a man’s smell to be more important than any other physical factor when selecting a lover. The influence of smell also outranked all social factors, except pleasantness, and was valued more highly than money or ambition, she found.

And, when study participants were asked to choose one physical trait in a lover that could be "better than average," women chose smell, while men chose looks. For men, the only factor to outrank good looks was the social factor, pleasantness.

The findings are consistent with previous research indicating that body odor is particularly critical for women in selecting mates because it is a signal of immunological health, said Herz.

A major cluster of genes determines a human’s immune system. It is thought that women choose mates who are more different than similar to themselves so that offspring will receive a full range of genes and a strong immune system.

Although questions still remain about body odor’s involvement in attraction, one thing is certain: Love smells different to everyone because "no one else smells exactly the same as you," said Herz