According to a new study, three-quarters of women admitted that they have snuggled with shirts or other clothing worn by someone they were missing, and two-thirds of men confessed to sniffing another person’s clothing. Most of the people surveyed reported smelling the clothing of a boyfriend or girlfriend, but some said that they had also sniffed the clothing of a child or family member. It isn’t new news that the sense of smell is closely linked to memory, but it is interesting how much smell can subtly influence our lives. Women can sync up menstrual cycles because of a hormone detected by scent, and recent studies have shown that we prefer the scents of those who were more ethnically close. [MSNBC]

In a study conducted by McGill University in Montreal, Canada, 20 young women were asked to fill out a Passionate Love Scale questionnaire (pdf), in order to determine how deeply they loved their partners. Next, the women were given seven t-shirts, one of which belonged to their boyfriend, four that belonged to close friends, and two that were worn by strangers. While all the women were equally able to pick out their lover's scent, they found that the women who rated “deeply in love” on the Passionate Love Scale were less able to distinguish a male friend’s odor from that of the strangers. Neurologist Johan Lundström believes that this study backs a theory known as “deflection,” which argues that the love we have for one person limits the attention we are able to give to other potential lovers. No word yet on whether this is also true of men, or gay couples. [New Scientist]