Certain smells are obviously more attractive than others. But according to new research from the University of British Columbia, your romantic partner’s scent can lower your stress levels.
Women feel calmer when smelling their male partner’s scent on a T-shirt, according to a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology from the American Psychological Association this week.
That’s right: The partner didn’t need to be present.
“Our findings suggest that a partner’s scent alone, even without their physical presence, can be a powerful tool to help reduce stress,” Marlise Hofer, the study’s lead author and a graduate student in the UBC department of psychology, said in a statement. Conversely, a stranger’s scent actually increased cortisol ( stress hormone) levels for these women.
Researchers included 96 opposite-sex couples for the study and had men wear a clean T-shirt for 24 hours. The men were instructed to not wear deodorant or scented body products, and they couldn’t smoke or eat foods that might otherwise affect their scent. To ensure the scent remained intact, the T-shirts were frozen after.
Women then either had to smell a T-shirt that hadn’t been worn, belonged to their partner or belonged to a stranger — without knowing which one they had. They also underwent stress tests, including a mock job interview and mental math tasks, in addition to giving saliva samples to test their cortisol levels.
As for why this occurred, authors think it could have to do with evolutionary factors.
“From a young age, humans fear strangers, especially strange males, so it is possible that a strange male scent triggers the ‘fight or flight’ response that leads to elevated cortisol,” Hofer continued in the statement. “This could happen without us being fully aware of it.”
Pleasant scents have been associated with stress relief in the past, as studies on aromatherapy have indicated.
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Smelling Your Partner’s Shirt Could Decrease Your Stress Levels, Study Says originally appeared on usnews.com
