The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs

by Patricia B. McConnell

The sense of smell mediates more of our behavior than we ever imagined. Women who live in close proximity to one another begin to menstruate in synchrony, all because of smells of which they’re not even aware.1 Men who are in intimate relationships with women have faster-growing facial hair than men who aren’t, and girls who grow up around men enter puberty sooner than girls who do not. The sense of smell is even an important component of sexual pleasure: fully half of the people who have lost their sense of smell as adults report a decrease in sexual interest. Research on reproductive pheromones (which often can’t be consciously detected at all, even if you try) has led to the use of a pheromone called alpha-androstenol in perfume. Not only does it attract members of the opposite sex (both in our species and in pigs—do be careful on a hog farm), but men rate photographs of women as more attractive if it’s in the air, and women are more likely to initiate interactions if in its presence.