Scent: Can It Make Or Break A Friendship?

Have you ever met someone and felt instant chemistry? A natural connection – as though you clicked almost immediately? According to scientists, it's not because you're like-minded – it's actually because of how you smell.

The idea that humans are using their noses to sniff out potential friendships is a curious notion – but it’s not as far-fetched as it sounds.

Whether we notice it or not, we are constantly using our olfactory senses to assess our world and the people we encounter. 

Tests have shown that newborn babies do this immediately, distinguishing the soothing, familiar scent of their own mother. Women, too, are able to identify their newborn child by smell alone. 

But could it be true that we are also – albeit subconsciously – smelling complete strangers in social interactions?

Could it be true that we are also – albeit subconsciously – smelling complete strangers in social interactions?

According to scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, humans have a unique odor. A signature scent, or "olfactory fingerprint" that is ours and ours alone. 

Their recent research suggests that it is in fact this scent – not similar interests or social circles – that causes people to become friends in the first place. 

“We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, 1866

There is Chemistry in Social Chemistry

Inbal Ravreby, a graduate student in the laboratory of distinguished olfaction researcher and professor of neurobiology, Noam Sobel, was fascinated by the idea of instant chemistry between strangers. 

She wanted to find out whether close friendships – the kind that form in an instant – had anything to do with olfaction.

To explore her theory, Ravreby rounded up 20 pairs of same-sex friends to take part in the study.

Each was asked to submit a personal odor sample (a T-shirt worn overnight), and a high-tech electronic nose called eNose was used to assess and compare the unique chemical signatures of their body odor. 

The results revealed that the friends did, in fact, smell more alike than randomly paired strangers.

The results revealed that the friends did, in fact, smell more alike than randomly paired strangers.

To rule out body odor similarities caused by eating the same foods, for example, or using similarly scented products, Ms Ravreby and fellow researchers tested another 132 strangers, asking them to interact with each other and comparing the odors of those who reported feeling a more natural connection with each other. 

Lo and behold, the pairs that felt "chemistry" were found to smell alike 71 percent of the time.

The findings, which were published in the academic journal Science Advances, imply that just like other mammals, we may use our sense of smell more profoundly than we realise. 

“As the saying goes, there is chemistry in social chemistry,” commented Ravreby.

Did you know?

Helen Keller could famously tell the identity of her friends by their personal scent.