While the idea of getting a sweaty armpit to the face might fill most people with dread, others enjoy having a whiff of body odour.
Now, a study has revealed that these people may also have an unusually high sex drive.
Researchers from the Southern Medical University in Guangzhou surveyed people in the US, China, and India about the frequency of sniffing themselves or others, and their sexual desire.
The results revealed that across all three cultures, people who engage in more body odour sniffing show stronger sexual desire.
While the idea of getting a sweaty armpit to the face might fill most people with dread, others enjoy having a whiff of body odour. Now, a study has revealed that these people may also have an unusually high sex drive (stock image)
Previous studies have shown a link between smell (olfaction), sexual desire and sexual behaviour.
‘In addition to its functional roles in ingestive behaviour, social communication and danger detection, olfaction is important for mammalian sexual behaviour,’ the researchers wrote in their study, published in Archives of Sexual Behaviour.
‘A higher olfactory sensitivity has been correlated with more pleasant sexual experiences and more frequent orgasms.’
However, until now, the degree to which body odours relate to sexual desire has not been explored.
To assess this, the researchers carried out two studies.
In the first study, 1,903 Chinese students were surveyed about the importance they place on smell, how often they sniff themselves or others, and their sexual desire.
The results revealed that participants who said they sniffed themselves and others more often had a higher sexual desire.
This effect was particularly strong in women.
The results revealed that participants who said they sniffed themselves and others more often had a higher sexual desire (stock image)
‘Data collected from Chinese college students showed that women placed higher value on olfaction, had higher prevalence of body odour sniffing and had lower levels of sexual motivation than did men,’ the researchers wrote.
In the second study, the researchers set out to determine whether this effect was consistent across cultures, by surveying people in the US and India.
A total of 313 Indian residents and 249 US residents were surveyed with the same questions as in study one.
The results corroborated the findings of the first study, by indicating that women put more emphasis on the sense of smell, reported higher prevalence of body odour sniffing and had lower levels of sexual desire.
‘For cultural variability, the subjective importance of olfaction and sexual desire among the Indian participants was all significantly higher than those of the US participants,’ the team wrote.
While the reason for the findings remains unclear, the researchers suggest that body odours may provide key clues about a partner.
‘Body odours transport chemical signals that facilitate detection of immunological matches, genetics and family relatedness, thus promoting sexual mate selection,’ the team wrote.
‘Additionally, body odour communicates the attractiveness of a potential partner.’
