Our Sexuality, 8th Edition Instructor’s Edition

A person’s sexual history and cultural conditioning often influence what smells he or she finds arousing. We typically learn through experience to view certain odors as erotic and others as offensive. - In a society that is often concerned about natural odors, it is nice to see that some people appreciate scents associated with sexual intimacy.

Among many nonhuman animals, smells are often more important than visual stimuli in eliciting sexual response. The females of many species secrete certain invisible substances, called pheromones (FARE-oh-mones), during their fertile periods. (Cutler, 1999; Roelofs, 1995, Small, 1999). If you have ever had a female dog in heat and observed male dogs coming from miles around to scratch at your door, you will not doubt for a moment the importance of smell in sexual arousal.

Another researcher, Winnifred Cutler (click for bio) (1999), has also been instrumental in developing commercially available synthetic human pheromones as additives to one’s favorite scent (click for info.) These products are advertised as having the capability of increasing romantic attention from the other sex.

Cutler recently published the results of a well-designed experiment that appears to support the assertion that her company markets substances with genuine sexual attractant qualities. In this investigation, 38 heterosexual men tested a formula that contained a synthetic version of a human male pheromone. Click here for study.

The study results demonstrated that, compared with a group of men treated with a placebo substance, the men using the pheromone component in their aftershave lotion for six weeks recorded a significant increases over their own two-week baseline behavior in sexual intercourse, sleeping with a woman, and affectionate behavior (hugging/kissing/petting).

Because the men did not masturbate more, Cutler and her colleagues concluded that the increased sexual/affectionate behavior was not due to heightened sex drive but rather to increase sex appeal attributable to the pheromone substances. (Cutler et al., 1998)

Another product marketed by Cutler’s company - a synthetic version of a pheromone naturally secreted by women - was recently investigated by an independent laboratory with no commercial interest in this product.

This study of 36 heterosexual women subjects demonstrated that, compared with women using a placebo substance, the women using the female pheromone component in their favorite perfume for six weeks recorded a significant increase over their own two-week baseline behavior in affectionate behavior, sleeping next to a romantic partner, and sexual intercourse. As was the case in the earlier study of the synthetic male pheromone, the women in this investigation did not masturbate more which suggests that the observed increases in affectionate/sexual behavior was not due to enhanced sex drive but rather to increased sexual attractiveness of women to men. (McCoy & Pitino, 2001).