Study shows people with similar body odours are more likely to hit it off as friends

A new study published in the journal Science Advances has found that people with similar body odours are more likely to hit it off as friends.

During the research, scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel hypothesized that humans may smell themselves and others to subconsciously estimate body odour similarity and judge their compatibility.

According to the study's lead author Inbal Ravreby, "Nonhuman terrestrial mammals constantly sniff themselves and each other and, based on this, decide who is friend or foe."

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Researchers collected samples from 20 pairs of non-romantic and same-sex friends, aged between 22 and 39 years old, who described themselves as having clicked at first sight.

All participants had to follow a strict protocol in order to prevent contamination or outside factors influencing their samples.

They had to wear a clean cotton T-shirt that was provided to them and avoid pungent foods and sleeping away from their partner.

The odour signatures of "click friends" were statistically more closely matched than odors between non-friends when scientists tested them with an electronic nose.

The team recruited human smellers and devised a set of tests to check the validity of their result to assess whether the eNose results accurately mirrored human perception.

They were successful in delineating between a pair of click friends from the outlier from their odours.

(With inputs from agencies)

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