Study results: Human pheromones influence human behavior

Dr. Richard L. Doty’s claim that pheromones in mammals are a myth is again falsified by the presentation of data from a study of student women.  As always, I welcome challenges to our study design, constructive criticisms on our results, and comments on biologically based animal models of behavior that do not incorporate pheromones.  My question to Dr. Doty is:  If mammalian pheromones don’t exist, what shall we call the human pheromones that elicit behavioral affects?

Association for Chemoreception Sciences XXXIII April 13-17, 2011      Tradewinds Island Grand St. Pete Beach, Florida 

#P301 POSTER SESSION VI: OLFACTION: PERIPHERY; OLFACTORY CNS; PSYCHOPHYSICS; HUMAN CHEMICAL SIGNALING

Human Pheromones, Epigenetics, Physiology, and the Development of Animal Behavior

James V Kohl, Stone Independent Research, Inc. Phoenix , NY , USA

Linda C Kelahan, Heather Hoffmann, Knox College/Psychology Galesberg , IL , USA

Androsterone, as used here, smells like fresh sweat. It is an individual human male-specific and somewhat primate-specific part of a mixture of axillary chemical secretions that contain androstenol, which influences levels of luteinizing hormone (LH) and mood in women. LH is a hormonal measure of diet dependent sexual maturity and fertility, which is influenced by mammalian pheromones. Mammalian conditioning paradigms suggest that androstenol conditions hormonal effects in females, which may be unconsciously associated with behavioral affects of androsterone in women. We evaluated individual video-taped fifteen-minute interactions of fourteen women with fertile phase levels of LH during a cooperative task. During the task, our male accomplice wore either a standardized androstenol / androsterone mixture diluted in propylene glycol, or just the diluent — with sandalwood odor added to keep him blind to his condition. (more…)

Human Pheromones Affect Women's Behavior

Association for Chemoreception Sciences 2011

Human Pheromones, Epigenetics, Physiology, and the Development of Animal Behavior

In eusocial insects like the honeybee, diet and pheromones are epigenetic determinants of virtually all aspects of each organism’s existence. The honeybee serves as a model organism for studying human immunity, disease resistance, allergic reactions, circadian rhythms, antibiotic resistance, development, mental health, longevity, and diseases of the X chromosome. Included among these different aspects of eusocial species survival are learning and memory as well as conditioned responses to sensory stimuli. Mammalian conditioning paradigms suggest that androstenol experientially conditions hormonal effects in females, which may be unconsciously associated with behavioral affects of androsterone in women. (more…)

Creating a Myth

As noted in this article, I help to market pheromone-enhanced fragrance products at pheromones.com. The editor of the following article does not mention that Doty markets smell tests and smell testing equipment at smelltest.com.

Penn Medicine: The Great Pheromone Myth (full text)

Excerpt: “James V. Kohl, an independent laboratory scientist who has published widely on pheromones, has mounted a kind of online campaign against Doty’s book.” (my emphasis added).

The editor of Penn Medicine knows my publication history, which includes a book, book chapter, and award-winning articles in research journals. Does he know that Dr. Richard Doty made no mention of me, or my published works in The Great Pheromone Myth? This fact may help me to clarify that I’m not campaigning against his book.  I use it as an example of a well-written publication that completely misrepresents what is currently known about pheromones. Some people, perhaps even Doty himself,  think that his book is controversial. Instead, it is simply wrong.

No other scientist has ever inferred anything like what Doty says has been inferred: “…that a plurality of mammalian behaviors and endocrine responses is uniquely determined in an invariant way by single or small sets of chemical stimuli. . . ” Any such inference is foolish.  Given the known similarities in mammalian physiology and behavior, it is like saying that the infinite number of possible endocrine responses and mammalian behaviors, which are associated with food choice are also uniquely determined either by one chemical, or by small sets of chemicals in food odors.

Experience with odors determines the behavior that is associated with them, whether the odors are food odors or social odors. Pheromones are social odors, Dick.

A lesser role for olfaction and pheromones in humans?

From time to time I find articles that cite my published works. This is the most recent article to do so. Pheromones in sex and reproduction: Do they have a role in humans?

Concluding sentences: “In mammals, olfaction plays a major role in sexual attraction, excitement and even in triggering ovulation. However, in humans, because of their large and complex brains, it plays a minor role and is significantly supplanted by vision and/or fantasy in men and by hearing and/or touch in women. Also, although olfaction alters the neuroendocrine balance in mammals, olfaction is altered by hormones in humans.”

It may interest others to read this review (the full text is available online for free) and attempt to determine how the authors concluded that humans are very different from other mammals. There has never been any scientific support for statements about comparative neuroanatomy (e.g., brain size and complexity) that challenge the known importance either of food odors or of social odors to mammalian behavior. Both food odors and social odors (called pheromones) alter the neuroendocrine balance in mammals and these alterations are the determinants of food choice and social choice, which include food preferences, social preferences, and even sexual preferences.

In 2001, we wrote:  “We have addressed several aspects of what is consciously perceived to be visual attraction both from an ethological and neuroendocrinological approach. In other mammals, the olfactory link among hormones, pheromones, and a conspecific’s hormones and behavior would readily establish that visually perceived facial attractiveness, bodily symmetry, attractive WHRs, and genetically determined HLA attractiveness, are due to the neuroendocrinological conditioning of visual responsivity to olfactory stimuli.”

A decade later, the most recent review cites Kohl et al (2001) but ignores our conclusion and continues to posit a lesser role for olfaction in humans than in other mammals.