ReviewThe role of body odors and olfactory ability in the initiation, maintenance and breakdown of romantic relationships – A review
Section snippets
General introduction
Human odors transport various cues about the people we interact with, whether we experience them unwillingly, thanks to a stranger's strong smell, or deliberately during sex with a loved one. In contrast to visual impressions where we appreciate specific features of a potential partner, such as big eyes or full lips, body odors are typically perceived as a whole entity. Nevertheless, human odors comprise different natural and artificial compounds. Natural compounds of human odors are for
Relationship initiation
Relationship initiation refers to the very early stage of a potential relationship when two people are exploring and assessing their attraction to each other. This stage of the relationship is characterized by an intense excitement to be in each other's company and feelings of passionate love [6]. The frequency of sex between couples is at its peak during the initiation phase [13] and contact with all other friends and family is forsaken to spend as much time with each other as possible [62].
Relationship maintenance
In dyadic partnerships, the maintenance stage of a romantic relationship is characterized by the consolidation of a physical and emotional connection with, and commitment to, one's partner [80]. While intensity of the emotions experienced during the initiation phase may fluctuate [12] and the frequency of sex decreases [13] it is important to note that a couple may feel close to their partner despite not regularly showing affection [4]. Couples who report high levels of relationship
Relationship breakdown
Relationship breakdowns are not uncommon as more than 85% of adults have been through a break-up of a romantic relationship [5]. Romantic relationships dissolve for various reasons with commonly cited causes for divorce including lack of commitment, infidelity, excessive conflict, domestic violence and poor health [84]. The reasons for relationship breakdown for non-marital couples are similar, including a lack of love, commitment and feelings of closeness [39]. In this section of the review,
General conclusion and implications
This review examined direct and indirect evidence indicating human body odors and the sense of smell play a role in the three broad stages in romantic relationships; initiation, maintenance and breakdown. We presented evidence suggesting body odors play an important role in relationship initiation because they faciliate the detection of fitness, genetic and familial relatedness and may also moderate sexual desire. Since women carry the biological higher risk of suboptimal partner choice, it is
Future research
Given that this is an emerging area of study, there are numerous avenues to investigate how body odors and olfactory ability may impact the various stages of romantic relationship. For example, because the vast majority of research has only utilised underarm sweat as the source of the body odor, exploring the impact other odors produced by the body (e.g., urine, faeces, flatulence, feet, breath etc.) and using more ecologically valid methodologies such as whole-body smelling [25] provide
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2022, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral ReviewsCitation Excerpt :The smell of smoke activates orientation reaction and helps avoid danger. Finally, body odors contain information on an individual’s emotional state (de Groot et al., 2015; de Groot and Smeets, 2017), disease (Olsson et al., 2014), and psychological traits (Sorokowska et al., 2012; Tognetti et al., 2021), and thus shape dynamics of close interpersonal relationships (Mahmut and Croy, 2019; Sorokowska et al., 2018; but see: Sorokowska et al., 2022). This spectrum of smell functions results in wide array of possible complaints related to olfactory impairment that may severely compromise well-being (Ahmedy et al., 2020; Croy et al., 2014; Mai et al., 2022; Zou et al., 2021; but see: Oleszkiewicz et al., 2020).
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