Pheromones

    Cards (4)

    • Pheromones
      Pheromones are chemicals that signal information( such as fertility or sexual attractiveness) from one member of a species to another. They are only known to be in animals but supposedly in foetuses but when they are born they decay. Many studies have been made on finding them in humans but there isn't a definitive answer if they exist or not. The main chemicals studied are AND + EST.
    • Zhou et al (2014)
      Aim: To investigate how sec hormones can alter perception.
      Procedure: 4 groups of 96 people, hetro women,men, gay women, men. They viewed different human motions / "point light maker". They had to identify if it was male or female while either gender's pheromones were pumped into the room (which are found in urine).
      Result: They each responded to the pheromones of the gender they were attracted to when interpreting the gender. Which concludes human pheromones do exist and alert possible mating opportunities.
    • Hare et al (2017)

      Aim: Investigate if AND and EST signal gender and affect perception.
      Procedure: 140 hetro adults completed two computer tasks over two days. The first day being shown 5 gender neutral facial morphs and had to indicate the gender. The second day they were shown images of the opposite sex and asked to rate how attractive they were on a scale 1-10.
      Result: There was no difference between the pheromones and control groups. In conclusion the chemicals do not act as signals of gender or attraction and don't qualify as human pheromones.
    • Cutler,Friedman and McCoy (1998)
      Aim: Investigate if a synthesised human pheromone can increase sociosexual behaviour of men.
      Procedure: Men aged between 25-42 years old, field experiment. Each man was asked to use their aftershave everyday and fill out a behavioural calendar consisting of affection, sleeping next to a romantic partner, intercourse,informal date, formal date,masterbation for two weeks. They added either ethonal or a pheromone to the aftershave.Then another six weeks filled in.
      Result: A larger number of the pheromone group had an increase with the first 4 activities, no change in last two. This could be due to the pheromones or his own tibido or a woman coming to him giving an indefinite answer.