ReviewProceedings. Biological sciences2015
The search for human pheromones: the lost decades and the necessity of returning to first principles.
Review in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 126 citations in OpenAlex.
- Kisspeptin enhances brain responses to olfactory and visual cues of attraction in men.JCI insight · 2020Trial
- Regulation of sebaceous gland homeostasis and sebum secretion by the ERBB receptor family.iScience · 2026Review
- Microbial Contributions to Primate Reproduction.Evolutionary anthropology · 2026Review
- Breastfeeding, bonding, and olfaction: unlocking the potential of mother-infant odour exchange.EBioMedicine · 2026Review
- The perception of gender in two allegedly sex-specific body odor compounds MSH and HMHA.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Genome-scale evolution in local populations of wild chimpanzees.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Past, Present, and Future of Human Chemical Communication Research.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2025Review
- Murine vaginal secretory responses to a male volatile chemical messenger.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Little evidence that androstadienone affects social distance-dependent prosocial behaviour: a pre-registered study.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Development of the gas chromatography/mass spectrometry-based aroma designer capable of modifying volatile chemical compositions in complex odors.Chemical senses · 2024Article
- Classification of odors associated with migraine attacks: a cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Sniffing out smell's effects on human behaviour.Nature · 2022Article
- Biological constraints on configural odour mixture perception.The Journal of experimental biology · 2022Article
- Musicality in human vocal communication: an evolutionary perspective.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Recognition of Gonadal Development inFrontiers in physiology · 2022Article
- Sniffing the human body volatile hexadecanal blocks aggression in men but triggers aggression in women.Science advances · 2021Article
- Article
- The role of fragrance and self-esteem in perception of body odors and impressions of others.PloS one · 2021Article
- Olfaction in the Multisensory Processing of Faces: A Narrative Review of the Influence of Human Body Odors.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Review
- The role of the microbiome in the neurobiology of social behaviour.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
As humans are mammals, it is possible, perhaps even probable, that we have pheromones. However, there is no robust bioassay-led evidence for the widely published claims that four steroid molecules are human pheromones: androstenone, androstenol, androstadienone and estratetraenol. In the absence of sound reasons to test the molecules, positive results in studies need to be treated with scepticism as these are highly likely to be false positives. Common problems include small sample sizes, an overestimate of effect size (as no effect can be expected), positive publication bias and lack of replication. Instead, if we are to find human pheromones, we need to treat ourselves as if we were a newly discovered mammal, and use the rigorous methods already proven successful in pheromone research on other species. Establishing a pheromone relies on demonstration of an odour-mediated behavioural or physiological response, identification and synthesis of the bioactive molecule(s), followed by bioassay confirmation of activity. Likely sources include our sebaceous glands. Comparison of secretions from adult and pre-pubertal humans may highlight potential molecules involved in sexual behaviour. One of the most promising human pheromone leads is a nipple secretion from the areola glands produced by all lactating mothers, which stimulates suckling by any baby not just their own.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.