Body odor quality predicts behavioral attractiveness in humans
Roberts, S. Craig and Kralevich, Alexandra and Ferdenzi, Camille and Saxton, Tamsin K. and Jones, Benedict C. and Debruine, Lisa M. and Little, Anthony C. and Havlicek, Jan (2011) Body odor quality predicts behavioral attractiveness in humans. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40 (6). pp. 1111-1117. ISSN 1573-2800 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-011-9803-8)
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Abstract
Growing effort is being made to understand how different attractive physical traits co-vary within individuals, partly because this might indicate an underlying index of genetic quality. In humans, attention has focused on potential markers of quality such as facial attractiveness, axillary odor quality, the second-to-fourth digit (2D:4D) ratio and body mass index (BMI). Here we extend this approach to include visually-assessed kinesic cues (nonverbal behavior linked to movement) which are statistically independent of structural physical traits. The utility of such kinesic cues in mate assessment is controversial, particularly during everyday conversational contexts, as they could be unreliable and susceptible to deception. However, we show here that the attractiveness of nonverbal behavior, in 20 male participants, is predicted by perceived quality of their axillary body odor. This finding indicates covariation between two desirable traits in different sensory modalities. Depending on two different rating contexts (either a simple attractiveness rating or a rating for long-term partners by 10 female raters not using hormonal contraception), we also found significant relationships between perceived attractiveness of nonverbal behavior and BMI, and between axillary odor ratings and 2D:4D ratio. Axillary odor pleasantness was the single attribute that consistently predicted attractiveness of nonverbal behavior. Our results demonstrate that nonverbal kinesic cues could reliably reveal mate quality, at least in males, and could corroborate and contribute to mate assessment based on other physical traits.
ORCID iDs
Roberts, S. Craig, Kralevich, Alexandra, Ferdenzi, Camille, Saxton, Tamsin K., Jones, Benedict C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7777-0220, Debruine, Lisa M., Little, Anthony C. and Havlicek, Jan;-
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Item type: Article ID code: 73311 Dates: DateEvent1 December 2011Published31 August 2011Published OnlineSubjects: Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > Psychology Department: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) > Psychological Sciences and Health > Psychology Depositing user: Pure Administrator Date deposited: 23 Jul 2020 10:39 Last modified: 11 Nov 2024 12:45 Related URLs: URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/73311