From Derek Potter and M.M. Kamal Hashmi
Whilst it is interesting that women should prefer the smell of men whose immune system is different from their own (New Scientist, Science, 6 May), there is a much simpler explanation than the biological desirability of ensuring genetic diversity as suggested by Wedekind. The question “Which do you prefer?” guarantees that the subject will take notice of her positive responses, which will include association with pleasure, and ignore any negative ones such as repulsion at the stink of dirty clothing.
We get used to smells very quickly, including our own. So the more different a man smells from a woman, the stronger he will smell to her. Wedekind’s results may well show that human male smell is related to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) variations and that women are turned on by it and that this response is modified by pregnancy hormones, but perhaps the explanation is simply that people prefer pleasurable odours which they can smell rather than those which they cannot.
I read Peter Aldhous’s article about the effect of the Pill on women’s preference in male odours with great interest. This is surely of great importance to people getting married. If a woman comes off or goes on the Pill after her wedding, she may find herself less attracted to her chosen mate and any friction between them will be exacerbated by this. Perhaps the rise in the divorce rate since the sixties has been influenced by the prevalence of the Pill?
There may be other drugs which influence men in a similar way, so I suggest that engaged couples investigate each other’s pharmacological state before taking the final step.
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Also, marriage guidance councillors may need to be able to prescribe the Pill to save a marriage. The Roman Catholic church will have to decide which is the lesser of two “evils” – divorce or contraception.
Finally, perhaps someone could discover a “fidelity” drug which married couples take to make themselves attractive to each other and unattractive to anybody else.
