Shine OnPheromone parties attempt to match singles by scent
Looking for love? Just follow your nose. A strange new kind of party popping up in the United States has put a decidedly smelly spin on dating.
Pheromone parties are a new breed of singles parties where guests are asked to wear a plain white t-shirt for three days (and nights) and then sneak it into a numbered Ziploc bag in order to capture your distinct personal scent. Other party guests mill around, socializing and leisurely sniffing the bagged t-shirts until they discover an odor that they find overwhelmingly attractive. Boom! An olfactory connection is made.
Pheromones are a kind of hormone found in animals that have long been suspected of communicating genetic suitability to others, helping to lure in strongly compatible mates.
The first party was held in Los Angeles, with hopes for the next one to be in New York City.
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"For my entire life, I dated intellectually," explains Judith Prays, the 25-year-old organizer of Pheromone Parties. "That wasn't working, so I decided to experiment. I went on a date with someone I never would have chosen (before) -- we didn't have much to talk about. But he kissed me at the end of the night and the kiss was so good that I decided to give it a shot."
Prays and that man dated for two years, and she describes it as her longest and best relationship.
"I became obsessed with his smell," Prays says. "And then I thought, what if I could choose men by smell?"
It's certainly a fun idea, but does it actually work? According to Prays, no guests at her parties have actually fallen in love at first whiff.
"Pheromones measure fecundity - how likely it is that your offspring will have offspring," Prays says. "It doesn't measure, say, how good someone is at dealing with conflict or how interested they are in committing. The point being that pheromone dating is good for quantity —- a lot of people tend to hook up at the party -- but it doesn't really do much in terms of lasting relationships."
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But the jury on human pheromones and how they impact sexual attraction is still out. There is still no evidence that the body emits "releaser" pheromones, which are the kind that alter the behaviours of others.
"As far as releasers, it may be that we simply don't have them," researcher Tristram Wyatt of the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford tells LiveScience. "Certainly courtship and everything else is so complex in humans that it may be the things that are really important are visual and social signals."
Still, there's no denying that most coupled people adore the way their partner smells, so why not give scratch 'n' sniff dating a whirl? It makes perfect scents.
Check out the fun video below where a group of young guys try to translate the things women say.
