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

Releaser

EST / AND

  • Immediate Response

  • Rapid and Reliable

  • Linked to sexual attraction

  • Fastest

Primer

  • Take longer to get response

  • Alter hormone levels in other beings

  • Long Term Impact

Signaler

  • Provide Information

  • Helps mother recognise newborn

Modulator

  • Alter or Synchronise Bodily Functions

  • Found in Sweat

AND

EST

  • Releaser

  • Fast

  • Male Pheromone

  • Released from men

  • Impacts women

M → F

Functions

  1. Gender Identification

  2. Sexual Attraction

  • Releaser

  • Fast

  • Female Pheromone

  • Released from women

  • Impacts men

  • F → M

Functions

  1. Gender Identification

  2. Sexual Attraction

  • Modulator

  • Slow

  • Female Pheromone

  • Released from women

  • Impacts women

  • F → F

Functions

  • Causes Menstrual Synchronicity

  • Bluetooth Period

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

Application

DIVER

  1. EST may have impacted menstrual synchronicity

  2. The onset dates began to increase in synchronisation over time

  3. The women were roommates and close friends who lived in close proximity and spent a lot of time with each other in their shared environment. EST could've been released into the environment and detected by the other women, causing a hormonal change.

  4. HOWEVER

She took no Physiological Data to understand the effect of EST

D

  • Quantitative Data

    • ↑ Causality

    • ↓ Researcher Bias

I

  • Social Desirability

    • Might change date to fit 

    • PPs could lie

  • Natural - PPs could lie

    • Less Control - PPs could lie

  • Extraneous Variables

    • They talk about it

    • They decide to screw/help it

    • Help or Screw Effect

    • PPs could lie

  • Demand Characteristics

    • PPs could lie

In the end: PPs could lie

Ecological Validity - Own Dorms

↓ Population Validity - Americans

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

Application

DIVER

  1. AND MAY impact sociosexual behaviour

  2. The AND group had a significant increase in some sociosexual behaviours compared to the placebo group

  3. The men with AND would've released more AND into the environment which would be detected by women, causing them to have a higher sexual attraction to the men, leading to more sociosexual behaviour.

HOWEVER: there was no change in self stimulation to ejaculation even though there should be a decrease and not all socio sexual increased.

I - extraneous variables:

Participant variables - the amount they shave usually, money and consent for female dates.

D - quantitative data

Tick yes or no

Reductionist - can you quantify amount of sociosexual behaviour?

Subjectivity - can compare the two groups

E

High in ecological validity

Natural environment - more likely to behave naturally.

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.

Application

DIVER

1) AND and EST does not impact gender identification and sexual attraction

2) There was no difference in gender asssigned to the morphed faces and no difference in the average attractiveness ratings.

3) AND and EST are meant to help with gender identification and increase sexual attraction from either man to woman or vice versa so there was meant to be an increase because they are releasers.

I - control variables:

  • Two computer based tasks

  • Two consecutive days

  • One of the days either exposed to AND or EST masked with clove oil

  • Control scent

Increases causality of the experiment

V

High in construct validity - the study measures what it is supposed to measure however results did not correlate

Rate of number scales for comparison however subjective

E

Low in ecological validity - lab experiment

Low in mundane realism - may impact their answers

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