Sniffers

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s study about passionate love and its effects on the nose comes an article on MSNBC about cuddling the smelly clothes of a loved one.

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]