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上周在《經濟學人》有一篇文章引述了在《International Journal of Cosmetic Science》期刊最新的關於「男性香水」的研究，發現了驚人結論，所有的男性，不得不讀！
這個結論是──男性噴了香水，整個人瞬間變得更自信，這個自信，會直接提高這個男性的「異性緣」。這點似乎沒什麼了不起？扯的是，這些女士們，根本不必「聞」到香水，就算她鼻子不靈，一點香水都沒聞到，照樣會受吸引！換句話說，原來香水是影響「被噴的人」，而不是影響「聞到的人」。男性噴淡淡香水，最重要的目的是「噴給自己聞」，足以把自己的舉手投足整個改變，其他人雖聞不到，卻「看」得到！科學家找來一群男性實驗者，其中一半給予目前市面上賣的男性香水，另一半則只給了外表差不多但不是香水的噴物，就這樣連續噴了幾天後，科學家為這兩批男性實驗者攝影，錄成一則無聲的短片，然後，請一群女性實驗者觀賞這則影片，問這些女性，影片中哪個人較吸引妳？若有機會，妳想和哪一位交往？結果發現，這一群女性實驗者一面倒，不約而同的都選了那些「噴了香水」的男性！注意，那些男性根本沒出現在女性面前，只是在無聲的影片裡面而已！有趣的是，科學家還試了給女性只看「照片」，結果並沒有發現明顯的效果，所以科學家解釋，香水影響了男性的動作與神情態度，而不是「長相」。一噴香水，有可能你舉手投足就會一邊聞到自己香香的，提升自信，看起來也會比較亮眼！只是，當對方聞不到，竟然也可以「看」得出這種改變，可見，香水真的很厲害！
這篇研究讓我馬上想到，以前常聽到某某人「瘦身」之後，整個人容光煥發，變得更有自信。那種自信，根本不必科學家的研究了，我憑著和對方好幾年的交情就知道，她的身體變瘦，和之前比較，外表並無太大的「提升」，真的提升的是在她的動作，她的表情，她說話的方式，一見到她，會覺得她整個人都在「發亮」。遇到一個會「發亮」的異性，任誰都會傾倒！換句話說，其實這種「發亮」，這種容光煥發，不必等到瘦身，其實早在胖嘟嘟的時期也早就已經有這個「發亮」的潛力，只是因為自認過胖，自己都無法說服自己，所以一直到瘦身後，才真的有！同樣的道理，有人到海外拿個學位，二年後回來，整個人也「發亮」了。你發現，他開始滿口都是英文，整個人好像變ABC！可是再問問他出國期間到底交什麼朋友，學什麼東西，你會發現，其實也「沒什麼啊」！出國一趟回來，竟然變得這麼多，整個人亮了起來，由此可見，其實在兩年前他早就有這個「潛力」了，只是出國這段經驗，讓他對自己更有自信，自然就把這些感覺都散發出來了！
重要的是，這故事還沒結束－－
噴了香水，有了自信。
瘦了身體，有了自信。
得到學位，有了自信……。
但這個亮度，馬上就不見了。少則一個月，長則幾個月。
我們會發現，變瘦的人，她又會一直繼續喊，啊，我最近又變胖了！啊我和街上那兩位比起來還是好胖！她看著鏡子，明明已經比以前瘦很多，但她的標準也愈來愈高了。
我們會發現，拿學位回來的人，竟會繼續的和其他人比較，啊你讀的是這個，我讀得比你好一點。之前，他可能只想要一個學位而已，現在卻還要一比、再比，比不完……。
我們也會發現，有些已然富有的人，或許以前只想掙點錢，讓自己有好日子過，等到富有後，「煩惱依然在」，看到其他人提著好包包，她也想買一個，搶著看看誰買的較新，誰買得較有品味……我昨天在微風廣場小坐，滿耳朵聽的都是這些話語。我們幾乎可看到，那些由外帶來的「自信」、「滿足」感，雖然讓我們「亮起來」，但很快就消失了，有的「香水」像學位啦、財富啦、體重啦，可以永遠保持在那邊，但我們人大腦既然會這麼容易被瞬間的「香水」給迷惑、給提升，其實也很快的就會讓這個「香水」消退，於是我們又回到了原本那個人，無論我們在哪個程度都是一樣，回到了黯淡。縱使已經身材苗條，學歷驚人，滿身香奈兒和LV……。香水只有一灌，噴完之後，還要再更多，已經找不到可以噴的了。有些人於是說：哎，所以一切回歸自然？不必這麼努力！還是努力的往這些偉大的目標衝去，想達到這些目標，但當達到後，香水噴過，我們也要練習自設「防火牆」，把自己給包起來，就像火災演習時，鐵捲門會嘩啦嘩啦的自動關起來，我們也要適時的自動把自己關起來，把那個「香水」留在自己身上。汲汲營營一輩子，像追著眼前蘿蔔的一匹笨馬，取得香水以後，在香水噗鼻、神清氣爽之際，先別「享受」，應該趕緊先建立「防火牆」，讓這個魅力永遠的跟著自己。
The scent of a man
To attract a woman by wearing scent, a man must first attract himself
THE very word “perfume” has feminine overtones to many male ears. Men can be sold “deodorant” and possibly “aftershave”, but the idea of all those dinky little bottles with their fussy paraphernalia is too much for the sensitive male ego. Yet no industry can afford to neglect half its potential market, and perfume-makers are ever keen to crack the shell of male reticence. Now they may know how to do so.
Craig Roberts of the University of Liverpool and his colleagues—working with a team from Unilever’s research laboratory at nearby Port Sunlight—have been investigating the problem. They already knew that appropriate scents can improve the mood of those who wear them. What they discovered, though, as they will describe in a forthcoming edition of the International Journal of Cosmetic Science, is that when a man changes his natural body odour it can alter his self-confidence to such an extent that it also changes how attractive women find him.
Half of Dr Roberts’s volunteers were given an aerosol spray containing a commercial formulation of fragrance and antimicrobial agents. The other half were given a spray identical in appearance but lacking active ingredients. The study was arranged so that the researchers did not know who had received the scent and who the dummy. Each participant obviously knew what he was spraying on himself, since he could smell it. But since no one was told the true purpose of the experiment, those who got the dummy did not realise they were being matched against people with a properly smelly aerosol.
Over the course of several days, Dr Roberts’s team conducted a battery of psychological tests on both groups of volunteers. They found that those who had been given the commercial fragrance showed an increase in self-confidence. Not that surprising, perhaps. What was surprising was that their self-confidence improved to such an extent that women who could watch them but not smell them noticed. The women in question were shown short, silent videos of the volunteers. They deemed the men wearing the deodorant more attractive. They were, however, unable to distinguish between the groups when shown only still photographs of the men, suggesting it was the men’s movement and bearing, rather than their physical appearance, that was making the difference.
For Unilever and other manufacturers of men’s scent, this is an important discovery. The firm’s marketing of its main product in this area, a deodorant called Lynx, plays up the so-called “Lynx Effect”—which is supposed to make men irresistibly attractive to women. Dr Roberts’s experiment, however, suggests that the advertised “Born chicka wah wah” of the product may have nothing to do with a woman’s appreciation of the smell, and everything to do with its psychological effect on the man wearing it.
Nor is this the only example of science illuminating the true role of perfumes. How they work to make people attractive is, as this example shows, not as obvious as it might seem.
Born chicka wah, ker-ching chicka ching
There are three broad theories of perfume use. One is that people employ it to mask body odours that they perceive as bad. The second is that some perfumes contain chemicals that mimic human pheromones—elusive, mysterious (and possibly mythical) substances believed by some to play a role in mating. The third is that people use it to heighten or fortify natural scent, and thus advertise sexual attractiveness or availability.
All three theories could be true. In particular, the role of perfume as an olfactory disguise is obvious. Even here, however, there are some subtle twists. Bad smells are not just a matter of poor hygiene. Illness and old age both bring characteristic odours of their own, and neither state makes people more attractive. Perfumes may spoof these messages. Hence the marketing of a new scent called Ageless Fantasy, by Harvey Prince, which claims its product disguises the “odour of ageing”, suggested to be caused by the breakdown of a particular fatty acid in the skin.
As to pheromones, whether humans have these is questionable. A pheromone is a chemical that elicits a specific behavioural response at a distance. Some insects, for example, can release sex pheromones that will attract a mate from many kilometres away. The most likely human candidate is a substance called androstadienone. This is a derivative of testosterone that is found in men’s sweat and is known, from brain-scanning studies, to promote activity in parts of women’s brains. That this results in changes in behaviour has not, however, been clearly demonstrated.
Terri Molnar, a spokeswoman for the Sense of Smell Institute, a research organisation in New York tied to the fragrance industry, says of human pheromones, “I think we believe they exist but they do not function as an attractant. They will elevate one’s mood but not attract a mate.”
The fallen sons of Eve?
The most interesting area, though, is the interaction between perfumes and natural scents that carry messages but do not have the specific properties of pheromones. Odours co-ordinate a wide range of human behaviour. Mothers can recognise their children by smell. Children can recognise each other. Relatives can be distinguished from non-relatives, even to the extent of understanding who is genetically different enough from the smeller to be a good choice of mate. The sexes themselves smell different, too, and women can glean information about a man’s social status from his smell alone.
As long ago as the 1950s, a perfumer called Paul Jellinek noted that several ingredients of incense resembled scents of the human body. It was not until 2001, however, that Manfred Milinski and Claus Wedekind of the University of Bern wondered whether there was a correlation between the perfume a woman preferred and her own natural scent. They found that there is.
The correlation is with the genes of what is known as the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). This region of the genome encodes part of the immune system. It turns out that one of the most important aspects of mate choice in mammals, humans included, is to make sure that your mate’s MHC is different from your own. Mixing up MHCs makes the immune system more effective. The MHC is also thought to act as a proxy for general outbreeding, with all the hybrid vigour that can bring. Fortunately, then, evolution has equipped mammals with the ability to detect by smell chemicals whose concentrations vary with differences in the MHC of the producer.
That means people are able to sniff out suitable MHC genomes in prospective partners. A woman, for instance, will prefer the smell of T-shirts that have been worn by men whose MHC genes are appropriately different from her own. Dr Milinski and Dr Wedekind also found an association between a woman’s MHC genes and some of her preferences for perfume. Perception of musk, rose and cardamom is correlated with the MHC. Perception of castoreum and cedar is not.
Women, it seems, choose not the kind of smell they would like on a partner, or even one that might mask a nasty odour of their own, but rather something that matches their MHC. In other words, they are advertising their own scent.
There are many useful inferences that might be drawn from this research. One would be that a woman’s choice of perfume will resist the vagaries of fashion. This may explain why most innovation in the industry involves changes in packaging and marketing, producing all that fussy paraphernalia, rather than changing what is in the bottle.
Another implication, says Dr Roberts, is that it is probably best that people choose perfumes for themselves rather than for someone else—unless they happen to know what the recipient likes. If you have made a good genetic choice of partner (ie, someone with a significantly different MHC), then the theory suggests that you should not be able to choose something that smells nice to them based on your own preferences. You might, though, have better luck choosing for a close relation, because she would probably have an MHC similar to your own.
The research also raises the question of what so-called unisex perfumes are for. In any genetically successful love match, one of the partners ought to hate a unisex perfume. Perhaps, in a world of olfactory fakery, this is one tip for the wise. If your partner has a strange knack of being able to pick out all the right perfumes, this may not be a good sign at all. And that, of course, means that the best you can hope for this Christmas is that he has bought you a perfume that you absolutely hate.
這個結論是──男性噴了香水，整個人瞬間變得更自信，這個自信，會直接提高這個男性的「異性緣」。這點似乎沒什麼了不起？扯的是，這些女士們，根本不必「聞」到香水，就算她鼻子不靈，一點香水都沒聞到，照樣會受吸引！換句話說，原來香水是影響「被噴的人」，而不是影響「聞到的人」。男性噴淡淡香水，最重要的目的是「噴給自己聞」，足以把自己的舉手投足整個改變，其他人雖聞不到，卻「看」得到！科學家找來一群男性實驗者，其中一半給予目前市面上賣的男性香水，另一半則只給了外表差不多但不是香水的噴物，就這樣連續噴了幾天後，科學家為這兩批男性實驗者攝影，錄成一則無聲的短片，然後，請一群女性實驗者觀賞這則影片，問這些女性，影片中哪個人較吸引妳？若有機會，妳想和哪一位交往？結果發現，這一群女性實驗者一面倒，不約而同的都選了那些「噴了香水」的男性！注意，那些男性根本沒出現在女性面前，只是在無聲的影片裡面而已！有趣的是，科學家還試了給女性只看「照片」，結果並沒有發現明顯的效果，所以科學家解釋，香水影響了男性的動作與神情態度，而不是「長相」。一噴香水，有可能你舉手投足就會一邊聞到自己香香的，提升自信，看起來也會比較亮眼！只是，當對方聞不到，竟然也可以「看」得出這種改變，可見，香水真的很厲害！
這篇研究讓我馬上想到，以前常聽到某某人「瘦身」之後，整個人容光煥發，變得更有自信。那種自信，根本不必科學家的研究了，我憑著和對方好幾年的交情就知道，她的身體變瘦，和之前比較，外表並無太大的「提升」，真的提升的是在她的動作，她的表情，她說話的方式，一見到她，會覺得她整個人都在「發亮」。遇到一個會「發亮」的異性，任誰都會傾倒！換句話說，其實這種「發亮」，這種容光煥發，不必等到瘦身，其實早在胖嘟嘟的時期也早就已經有這個「發亮」的潛力，只是因為自認過胖，自己都無法說服自己，所以一直到瘦身後，才真的有！同樣的道理，有人到海外拿個學位，二年後回來，整個人也「發亮」了。你發現，他開始滿口都是英文，整個人好像變ABC！可是再問問他出國期間到底交什麼朋友，學什麼東西，你會發現，其實也「沒什麼啊」！出國一趟回來，竟然變得這麼多，整個人亮了起來，由此可見，其實在兩年前他早就有這個「潛力」了，只是出國這段經驗，讓他對自己更有自信，自然就把這些感覺都散發出來了！
重要的是，這故事還沒結束－－
噴了香水，有了自信。
瘦了身體，有了自信。
得到學位，有了自信……。
但這個亮度，馬上就不見了。少則一個月，長則幾個月。
我們會發現，變瘦的人，她又會一直繼續喊，啊，我最近又變胖了！啊我和街上那兩位比起來還是好胖！她看著鏡子，明明已經比以前瘦很多，但她的標準也愈來愈高了。
我們會發現，拿學位回來的人，竟會繼續的和其他人比較，啊你讀的是這個，我讀得比你好一點。之前，他可能只想要一個學位而已，現在卻還要一比、再比，比不完……。
我們也會發現，有些已然富有的人，或許以前只想掙點錢，讓自己有好日子過，等到富有後，「煩惱依然在」，看到其他人提著好包包，她也想買一個，搶著看看誰買的較新，誰買得較有品味……我昨天在微風廣場小坐，滿耳朵聽的都是這些話語。我們幾乎可看到，那些由外帶來的「自信」、「滿足」感，雖然讓我們「亮起來」，但很快就消失了，有的「香水」像學位啦、財富啦、體重啦，可以永遠保持在那邊，但我們人大腦既然會這麼容易被瞬間的「香水」給迷惑、給提升，其實也很快的就會讓這個「香水」消退，於是我們又回到了原本那個人，無論我們在哪個程度都是一樣，回到了黯淡。縱使已經身材苗條，學歷驚人，滿身香奈兒和LV……。香水只有一灌，噴完之後，還要再更多，已經找不到可以噴的了。有些人於是說：哎，所以一切回歸自然？不必這麼努力！還是努力的往這些偉大的目標衝去，想達到這些目標，但當達到後，香水噴過，我們也要練習自設「防火牆」，把自己給包起來，就像火災演習時，鐵捲門會嘩啦嘩啦的自動關起來，我們也要適時的自動把自己關起來，把那個「香水」留在自己身上。汲汲營營一輩子，像追著眼前蘿蔔的一匹笨馬，取得香水以後，在香水噗鼻、神清氣爽之際，先別「享受」，應該趕緊先建立「防火牆」，讓這個魅力永遠的跟著自己。
The scent of a man
To attract a woman by wearing scent, a man must first attract himself
THE very word “perfume” has feminine overtones to many male ears. Men can be sold “deodorant” and possibly “aftershave”, but the idea of all those dinky little bottles with their fussy paraphernalia is too much for the sensitive male ego. Yet no industry can afford to neglect half its potential market, and perfume-makers are ever keen to crack the shell of male reticence. Now they may know how to do so.
Craig Roberts of the University of Liverpool and his colleagues—working with a team from Unilever’s research laboratory at nearby Port Sunlight—have been investigating the problem. They already knew that appropriate scents can improve the mood of those who wear them. What they discovered, though, as they will describe in a forthcoming edition of the International Journal of Cosmetic Science, is that when a man changes his natural body odour it can alter his self-confidence to such an extent that it also changes how attractive women find him.
Half of Dr Roberts’s volunteers were given an aerosol spray containing a commercial formulation of fragrance and antimicrobial agents. The other half were given a spray identical in appearance but lacking active ingredients. The study was arranged so that the researchers did not know who had received the scent and who the dummy. Each participant obviously knew what he was spraying on himself, since he could smell it. But since no one was told the true purpose of the experiment, those who got the dummy did not realise they were being matched against people with a properly smelly aerosol.
Over the course of several days, Dr Roberts’s team conducted a battery of psychological tests on both groups of volunteers. They found that those who had been given the commercial fragrance showed an increase in self-confidence. Not that surprising, perhaps. What was surprising was that their self-confidence improved to such an extent that women who could watch them but not smell them noticed. The women in question were shown short, silent videos of the volunteers. They deemed the men wearing the deodorant more attractive. They were, however, unable to distinguish between the groups when shown only still photographs of the men, suggesting it was the men’s movement and bearing, rather than their physical appearance, that was making the difference.
For Unilever and other manufacturers of men’s scent, this is an important discovery. The firm’s marketing of its main product in this area, a deodorant called Lynx, plays up the so-called “Lynx Effect”—which is supposed to make men irresistibly attractive to women. Dr Roberts’s experiment, however, suggests that the advertised “Born chicka wah wah” of the product may have nothing to do with a woman’s appreciation of the smell, and everything to do with its psychological effect on the man wearing it.
Nor is this the only example of science illuminating the true role of perfumes. How they work to make people attractive is, as this example shows, not as obvious as it might seem.
Born chicka wah, ker-ching chicka ching
There are three broad theories of perfume use. One is that people employ it to mask body odours that they perceive as bad. The second is that some perfumes contain chemicals that mimic human pheromones—elusive, mysterious (and possibly mythical) substances believed by some to play a role in mating. The third is that people use it to heighten or fortify natural scent, and thus advertise sexual attractiveness or availability.
All three theories could be true. In particular, the role of perfume as an olfactory disguise is obvious. Even here, however, there are some subtle twists. Bad smells are not just a matter of poor hygiene. Illness and old age both bring characteristic odours of their own, and neither state makes people more attractive. Perfumes may spoof these messages. Hence the marketing of a new scent called Ageless Fantasy, by Harvey Prince, which claims its product disguises the “odour of ageing”, suggested to be caused by the breakdown of a particular fatty acid in the skin.
As to pheromones, whether humans have these is questionable. A pheromone is a chemical that elicits a specific behavioural response at a distance. Some insects, for example, can release sex pheromones that will attract a mate from many kilometres away. The most likely human candidate is a substance called androstadienone. This is a derivative of testosterone that is found in men’s sweat and is known, from brain-scanning studies, to promote activity in parts of women’s brains. That this results in changes in behaviour has not, however, been clearly demonstrated.
Terri Molnar, a spokeswoman for the Sense of Smell Institute, a research organisation in New York tied to the fragrance industry, says of human pheromones, “I think we believe they exist but they do not function as an attractant. They will elevate one’s mood but not attract a mate.”
The fallen sons of Eve?
The most interesting area, though, is the interaction between perfumes and natural scents that carry messages but do not have the specific properties of pheromones. Odours co-ordinate a wide range of human behaviour. Mothers can recognise their children by smell. Children can recognise each other. Relatives can be distinguished from non-relatives, even to the extent of understanding who is genetically different enough from the smeller to be a good choice of mate. The sexes themselves smell different, too, and women can glean information about a man’s social status from his smell alone.
As long ago as the 1950s, a perfumer called Paul Jellinek noted that several ingredients of incense resembled scents of the human body. It was not until 2001, however, that Manfred Milinski and Claus Wedekind of the University of Bern wondered whether there was a correlation between the perfume a woman preferred and her own natural scent. They found that there is.
The correlation is with the genes of what is known as the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). This region of the genome encodes part of the immune system. It turns out that one of the most important aspects of mate choice in mammals, humans included, is to make sure that your mate’s MHC is different from your own. Mixing up MHCs makes the immune system more effective. The MHC is also thought to act as a proxy for general outbreeding, with all the hybrid vigour that can bring. Fortunately, then, evolution has equipped mammals with the ability to detect by smell chemicals whose concentrations vary with differences in the MHC of the producer.
That means people are able to sniff out suitable MHC genomes in prospective partners. A woman, for instance, will prefer the smell of T-shirts that have been worn by men whose MHC genes are appropriately different from her own. Dr Milinski and Dr Wedekind also found an association between a woman’s MHC genes and some of her preferences for perfume. Perception of musk, rose and cardamom is correlated with the MHC. Perception of castoreum and cedar is not.
Women, it seems, choose not the kind of smell they would like on a partner, or even one that might mask a nasty odour of their own, but rather something that matches their MHC. In other words, they are advertising their own scent.
There are many useful inferences that might be drawn from this research. One would be that a woman’s choice of perfume will resist the vagaries of fashion. This may explain why most innovation in the industry involves changes in packaging and marketing, producing all that fussy paraphernalia, rather than changing what is in the bottle.
Another implication, says Dr Roberts, is that it is probably best that people choose perfumes for themselves rather than for someone else—unless they happen to know what the recipient likes. If you have made a good genetic choice of partner (ie, someone with a significantly different MHC), then the theory suggests that you should not be able to choose something that smells nice to them based on your own preferences. You might, though, have better luck choosing for a close relation, because she would probably have an MHC similar to your own.
The research also raises the question of what so-called unisex perfumes are for. In any genetically successful love match, one of the partners ought to hate a unisex perfume. Perhaps, in a world of olfactory fakery, this is one tip for the wise. If your partner has a strange knack of being able to pick out all the right perfumes, this may not be a good sign at all. And that, of course, means that the best you can hope for this Christmas is that he has bought you a perfume that you absolutely hate.
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