Why do we sleep in the place of his partner when he is not there, or when we are wearing his shirt? A new study from the University of British Columbia, Canada, shows that the smell of his companion, even absent, would lower the stress hormone, cortisol. The results of this research appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Women are more sensitive to odors
The researchers recruited 96 heterosexual couples. The men were given a clean T-shirt to wear for 24 hours with instructions not to use perfume or deodorant and to avoid smoking or eating certain foods that affect body odor. The T-shirts were then frozen to preserve the scent.
The women were made to smell three different garments: either an unworn T-shirt, a model worn by their partner, or by a stranger. They obviously didn’t know which T-shirt they had received. The study was carried out in this sense because women tend to have a better sense of smell than men, the authors explain. After sniffing the garment, they underwent a stress test involving a job interview simulated and a mental arithmetic task. They also answered questions about their stress levels and provided 5-7 saliva samples during the test to measure their cortisol levels.
Immediate appeasement
Women who had smelled their partner’s t-shirt felt calmer before and after the ordeal. Those who correctly identified the garment even more, suggesting that the effect of a partner’s scent is stronger when women know what they smell. Conversely, women who had been exposed to a foreign smell had higher cortisol levels throughout the test.
The authors speculate that evolutionary factors could influence why a foreign smell affected cortisol levels. “From an early age, humans fear strangers, especially men, so it’s possible that an unfamiliar scent will trigger a fight-or-flight response leading to elevated cortisol,” he said. said Marlise Hofer, lead author of the study. “It could happen without our being fully aware of it.” Scientists hope the results can help people cope with stressful situations, such as when they are away from loved ones.
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