ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2017
Men's preferences for women's body odours are not associated with human leucocyte antigen.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mate assessment based on physical characteristics: a review and reflection.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- Body Odours Sampled at Different Body Sites in Infants and Mothers-A Comparison of Olfactory Perception.Brain sciences · 2021Article
- Marriage does not relate to major histocompatibility complex: a genetic analysis based on 3691 couples.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- No evidence for a relationship between MHC heterozygosity and life history strategy in a sample of North American undergraduates.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Chemical signals from eggs facilitate cryptic female choice in humans.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Pleasant body odours, but not genetic similarity, influence trustworthiness in a modified trust game.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- The scent of attractiveness: levels of reproductive hormones explain individual differences in women's body odour.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
- Accumulating evidence suggests that men do not find body odours of human leucocyte antigen-dissimilar women more attractive.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
- A predicted interaction between odour pleasantness and intensity provides evidence for major histocompatibility complex social signalling in women.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
- Men's preferences for women's body odours are not associated with human leucocyte antigen.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2017Article
- Sexual Desire of Women With Fast and Slow Life History Throughout the Ovulatory Cycle.Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behaviorArticle
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Body odours reportedly portray information about an individual's genotype at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC, called human leucocyte antigen, HLA, in humans). While there is strong experimental support for MHC-associated mating behaviour in animals, the situation in humans is more complex. A lot of effort has been spent on testing HLA-associated odour preferences of women. To date, only very few studies have looked at HLA-linked olfactory preferences in men and these studies have revealed inconsistent results. Here, we investigate men's HLA-associated preferences for women's body odours. Importantly, and in contrast to previous studies, these odours were gathered at peak fertility (i.e. just before ovulation) when any HLA-associated odour preferences should be strongest. We scrutinized whether men's preference for women's body odours is influenced by (i) the number of shared HLA alleles between men and women, (ii) HLA heterozygosity, and (iii) the frequency of rare HLA alleles. We found that men could readily differentiate between odours they found attractive and odours they found less attractive, but that these preferences were not associated with HLA. Specifically, men did not prefer odours from women who are HLA dissimilar, HLA heterozygous, or who have rare HLA alleles. Together, these findings suggest that HLA has no effect on men's odour preferences.
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