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A chemical turn-off

Posted by Robin on 7 January 2011 7 Comments

Tears of sadness contain a chemical turn-off for men. Like animal tears, human tears may influence the behaviour of others by smell alone.

In a pilot experiment Noam Sobel and colleagues at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, asked a group of men to sniff tears before filling out a mood questionnaire. "To our surprise, we found no change in the area of positive or negative mood, but there was a decrease in sexual arousal," says Sobel.

— From The scent of a woman's tears wards off men at NewScientist.

Filed Under: perfume in the news

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7 Comments

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  1. dee says:
    7 January 2011 at 11:51 am

    Interesting! I wonder if this is a hard-wired genetic attempt at protection from assault?

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    • Robin says:
      7 January 2011 at 12:17 pm

      Gosh, maybe. But I’m not sure the title of the article is warranted by the study…showing that the smell of tears lessen chemical signs of sexual arousal in a laboratory setting does not, to me, mean they “ward off” men.

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      • Merlin says:
        7 January 2011 at 2:43 pm

        The exact conclusion is not quite as general as the article’s sensationalist title, but it does seem statistically significant. I think it could be related to men being attracted to signs of well-being, shiny eyes, hair etc in women who would be more likely to carry their baby to term.

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  2. 50_Roses says:
    7 January 2011 at 1:50 pm

    I am reminded of a study that determined that the most sexually arousing scent for men was pumpkin pie (!)

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    • Robin says:
      7 January 2011 at 7:11 pm

      I remember that one :-)

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  3. VanMorrisonFan says:
    7 January 2011 at 4:41 pm

    Well, we know one fragrance that the perfume makers won’t try to incorporate into future products…I get teary-eyed when I think of paying for some of these perfumes ($200+ per oz.).

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    • Robin says:
      7 January 2011 at 7:11 pm

      LOL!

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