Love Stinks: The Association between Body Odors and Romantic Relationship Commitment.

Madeleine Keaveny,Mehmet Kibris Mahmut

doi:10.3390/brainsci11111522

Abstract

Anecdotal reports indicate that women dislike their partner’s body odor (BO) during the breakdown of a relationship; however, whether disliking a partner’s BO is associated with intentions to break up has not been empirically tested. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to investigate, for the first time, whether disliking one’s partner’s BOs is associated with experiencing lower commitment to a romantic relationship. Eighty participants (48 partnered, 32 single and previously partnered) completed self-report questionnaires about their current or previous romantic relationship and the amount of exposure to—and hedonic ratings of—their current or former partner’s BOs. Olfactory function was also tested, and participants smelled and rated various pieces of clothing imbued with a stranger’s BO. The results demonstrated that for participants who had experienced a breakup, historically higher levels of relationship commitment were associated with higher hedonic ratings of a previous partner’s BOs, regardless of the type of BOs. For participants currently in a relationship, lower relationship commitment was associated with higher breakup intentions in response to smelling their partner’s BOs. These preliminary results contribute evidence for the positive association between exposure to a partner’s BOs and favorable hedonic appraisals of BOs; however, further research needs to be conducted in this area to investigate nuances. Lower levels of exposure to one’s partner’s BOs may be more indicative of relationship commitment than exposure to hedonically unpleasant BOs of one’s partner. The findings are discussed with reference to their implications for interventions in relationship breakdown.

Highlights

Women rate liking someone’s body odor (BO) as the most important physical factor driving sexual attraction and mate choice, while men report that smell is as important as physical appearance, demonstrating the influence of BOs in the early stages of a romantic relationship [1,2]
As over 85% of adults have experienced a breakup of a romantic relationship and suffered negative psychological effects as a result, it is of great importance to examine the processes that may be involved in relationship breakdown in order to inform relationship counselling and breakup intervention strategies [6]
To check whether the significant differences found between partnered and single participants were related to gender, we compared males and female scores on the Investment Model Scale (IMS) and Object Ratings Task (ORT)

Summary

Introduction

Women rate liking someone’s body odor (BO) as the most important physical factor driving sexual attraction and mate choice, while men report that smell is as important as physical appearance, demonstrating the influence of BOs in the early stages of a romantic relationship [1,2]. Research is lacking in the area of relationship breakdown [5], which refers to the dissolution of a romantic relationship. As over 85% of adults have experienced a breakup of a romantic relationship and suffered negative psychological effects as a result, it is of great importance to examine the processes that may be involved in relationship breakdown in order to inform relationship counselling and breakup intervention strategies [6]. While anecdotal accounts suggest that women find their partner’s BO disgusting during the breakdown of their relationship [7], to date, no empirical studies have directly examined this association. The principle aim of this study was to determine whether the hedonic appraisal of a romantic partner’s BOs is associated with the level of commitment to the relationship

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion