Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Nov 17;11(11):1522.
doi: 10.3390/brainsci11111522.

Love Stinks: The Association between Body Odors and Romantic Relationship Commitment

Madeleine Keaveny  1 , Mehmet Kibris Mahmut  2
Affiliations

Love Stinks: The Association between Body Odors and Romantic Relationship Commitment

Madeleine Keaveny et al. Brain Sci. .

Abstract

Anecdotal reports indicate that women dislike their partner's body odor (BO) during the breakdown of a relationship; however, whether disliking a partner's BO is associated with intentions to break up has not been empirically tested. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to investigate, for the first time, whether disliking one's partner's BOs is associated with experiencing lower commitment to a romantic relationship. Eighty participants (48 partnered, 32 single and previously partnered) completed self-report questionnaires about their current or previous romantic relationship and the amount of exposure to-and hedonic ratings of-their current or former partner's BOs. Olfactory function was also tested, and participants smelled and rated various pieces of clothing imbued with a stranger's BO. The results demonstrated that for participants who had experienced a breakup, historically higher levels of relationship commitment were associated with higher hedonic ratings of a previous partner's BOs, regardless of the type of BOs. For participants currently in a relationship, lower relationship commitment was associated with higher breakup intentions in response to smelling their partner's BOs. These preliminary results contribute evidence for the positive association between exposure to a partner's BOs and favorable hedonic appraisals of BOs; however, further research needs to be conducted in this area to investigate nuances. Lower levels of exposure to one's partner's BOs may be more indicative of relationship commitment than exposure to hedonically unpleasant BOs of one's partner. The findings are discussed with reference to their implications for interventions in relationship breakdown.

Keywords: Sniffin’ sticks; body odor; olfaction; relationship breakdown; romantic relationships.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Herz R., Cahill S. Differential use of sensory information in sexual behavior as a function of gender. Hum. Nat. 1997;8:275–286. doi: 10.1007/BF02912495. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Herz R., Inzlicht M. Sex differences in response to physical and social factors involved in human mate selection: The importance of smell for women. Evol. Hum. Behav. 2002;23:359–364. doi: 10.1016/S1090-5138(02)00095-8. - DOI
    1. De Groot J.H., Smeets M.A., Kaldewaij A., Duijndam M.A., Semin G.R. Chemosignals communicate human emotions. Psychol. Sci. 2012;23:1417–1424. doi: 10.1177/0956797612445317. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Prehn-Kristensen A., Wiesner C., Bergmann T., Wolff S., Jansen O., Mehdorn H., Ferstl R., Pause B.M., Lauwereyns J. Induction of Empathy by the Smell of Anxiety (Chemical Signals of Anxiety) PLoS ONE. 2009;4:E5987. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005987. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mahmut M.K., Croy I. The role of body odors and olfactory ability in the initiation, maintenance and breakdown of romantic relationships—A review. Physiol. Behav. 2019;207:179–184. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2019.05.003. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources