Sex Appeal May Be Tied To Smell
The Nose Knows
Smell is one of the most underrated senses. Yet new research says it deserves quite a bit more attention -- scientists have discovered your sex appeal could be tied the scent you give off.
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Researchers at the University of Michigan discovered that older fruit flies with a younger scent were most likely to be preferred by other fruit flies.
Scott D. Pletcher, professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology and research at U of M, looked at older fruit flies and found they were least preferred by mates.
But when these older flies were doused with young pheromones, they became the talk of the town. It's like a bad Axe commercial, except for insects that only live 90 days.
"We found in the end that regardless of the age of the fly, the choosing flies really went crazy for the flies that carried the young pheromone," Pletcher said.
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The researchers hope the study will be first step in determining the answers to larger questions, such as how attraction affects health.
"We're excited about these results because they may help us leverage our knowledge of the mechanisms that drive the aging process. This research indicates that the mechanisms important for aging also influence outward attractiveness," Pletcher said.
"Our hope is we can take a trait like attractiveness and study the connection between attractiveness and health."
