There is a Good Chance You Smell Just Like Your Best Friend According to New Study
It's said that common-ground, brings people together, others say opposites attract but what if I told you odor is what brings people together?
According to a new study published by Yahoo, that is precisely the case. The study found that people were attracted to others with a "similar body odor." The researchers gave study participants white t-shirts and made them stay alone, away from their pets and families.
When they gathered the shirts back, they analyzed the "odor signatures" and found that people smelled more like their friends, than people they were not friends with. In a similar study, scientists asked people mingle with a series of strangers, close to one another for a few minutes. Next, they asked who the participants who they "clicked with" and found the people they hit-it-off with had similar odor signatures.
These studies leave me with a lot of questions but the results do not surprise me. Odor is a powerful thing. From a personal perspective, I fear smells, body odor in particular. I shower a minimum of two times a day, I never leave the house without deodorant on and I've been known to travel with mouthwash and deodorant.
Furthermore, I quit smoking because I was tired of smelling like cigarettes'. Not to improve my health, or extend my life, nope. I just didn't want to smell like a charred a-- crack anymore.
We are whiffing our friends out of necessity, we're afraid to find ourselves in a crisis situation with someone who stank. After reading these results, I thought deeply about it, all my friends smell good and I'm proud of that. If you're out in public smelling like must or musk, I have to call you out on that. I'll say "Yo, Stinky McOdorfoot, get your spicy aroma under control!"
What are we doing? Like, for real I can't believe how many people go out in public without mitigating their essence. It's really a problem for me, I'm over-the-top judgmental about smells. I'm really working hard on being less judge-y in general, but I don't know if I'll ever keep an open mind about adults who smell like hot sour cream.
There must have been a smell incident in my early childhood development, you cannot feel this strongly about something without a foundational stench incident.
P.S. If you think someone smells good, tell them. We need positive reinforcement as much as we need shame tactics. Is there anything better than when someone tells you, you smell good? I don't think so. Being told you smell good is like winning the bouquet Super Bowl.