Pheremones

Pheromones - a chemical substance produced and released into the environment by an animal affecting the behaviour or physiology of others in its own species.

• Hidden form of communication

• Animal pheromones are a fact, Human Pheromones are still debated

• Humans might not respond to them the same way animals do

  • We have languages to communicate now

• Pheromones are detected by the Vomeronasal Organ (VNO) - responsible for processing regular smell.

• Pheromones are processed by the Accessory Olfactory Bulb

• Fetuses have accessory olfactory bulbs, but they regress

  • Pheromones DID impact us

• Some people still have VNOs

  • It is disconnected from the Nervous System

  • Has NO Impact

• Pheromones could still be processed somewhere else

  • Evolution - changed the way we detect and process

McClintock (1971)

EST - Modulator

• Aim: Prove Pheromones cause menstrual synchronization

• IV - NOTHING. THERE IS NO IV.

• DV - Onset Date

• Research Method - Questionnaire, Natural 

Method

• 135 Females in College Dormitory

  • USA

  • College Dorm - Same Environment

• Females would fill questionnaires on onset day each month

• Gave it to roommates and close friends

  • Live in close proximity => Share time together, in same environment
    
    

Results

• Significant increase in synchronisation over time

• Argued this COULD be a pheromonal response

• She didn't take any physiological data

  • This would've confirmed it was due to pheromones

  • Examples, Blood Sample, Temperature - Changes during Period

• No Support in The Findings of this Study
  
  

• Repeated again by 2 different studies - None agreed with the results

  • Trevathan (1993) - 29 Lesbian Partners - No Evidence of Synchronicity

    • Live in same environment

  • Yang & Schank (2006) - 186 Chinese women living in dorm for 1 year - No Evidence

  • ↓ Reliability

Cutler, Friedmann, McCoy (1998)

McCoys - Crisps: Cut and Fry potatoes

(Weird way to remember their names :P)

AND - Releaser

• Aim: Test whether synthesized human pheromones increase sociosexual behaviour 

• IV: Exposure to AND

• DV: Sociosexual Behaviour

• Research Method: Field, Questionnaire

Ethics

• ✓ Consent - Medical Procedure, Put on Aftershave, Did questionnaire every day

• X Consent - Deception

• X Deception

  • Placebo BUT It was necessary

• X Harm - Placebo

  • Sensitive Personal Info

Method

• 38 Men aged 26-42

• 8 weeks in total

  • 2 week Baseline

  • 6 week Placebo-Controlled, Double Blind Trial

• PPTs told - testing a pheromone "designed to improve the romance in their lives"
  
  

• 2 Week Baseline

  • Subjects record daily behavioural records

    • Behaviours:
      
      

      • petting/affection/kissing

      • formal dates

      • informal dates

      • sleeping next to partner

      • Intercourse

      • self stimulation - Non Sociosexual
        
        

    • You need to know all 6 of these ↑
      
      

• PPTs then took aftershave with placebo or pheromone

• Recorded activities every week during 6 week period

Expected Result

• Pheromone:

  • Sociosexual Behaviours - ↑↑

  • Non Sociosexual Behaviour - ↓↓
    
    

Result

• Pheromone Group

  • Most Sociosexual behaviour increased

    • Compared to Baseline

      • ↑ Sleeping with partner

      • ↑ Intercourse

• Compared to Pheromone

  • ↑ Kissing / Petting / Affection

  • Formal Dates - No Change

• Non Sociosexual behaviour - Didn't change between placebo and pheromone

• This is different to what we expected

Conclusion

• The results are different to what was expected

• The data needs replication

• Suggests that human male pheromones affect the sexual attractiveness of men to women

Hare et al (2017)

AND + EST = releaser

• Aim: to investigate if AND and EST signal gender and affect male perception

• IV: pheromone or placebo

• DV: gender identification and sexual attraction

• RM: lab

Ethics

• Deception - broken

• Consent - broken

• Confidential - met

Method

• 140 heterosexual adults (divided into 2 groups of 70)

• Repeated measures design

• Completed two computer based tasks on two consecutive days

• One of the days exposed to the putative pheromone (AND or EST) masked with clove oil

• On the other day exposed to control scent (clove oil alone)

• The order of conditions were counterbalanced

• First task shown 5 gender neutral facial morphs and had to indicate gender

• Second task shown photos of individuals of opposite sex and rate them on a scale of 1 to 10.

Results

• No difference in gender assigned to the morphed faces in pheromone vs control

• No difference in the average attractiveness ratings

Conclusion

• AND and EST do not act as signals of gender or of attractivenesss.