Sniffing of Body Odors and Individual Significance of Olfaction Are Associated with Sexual Desire: A Cross-Cultural Study in China, India, and the USA.
Body odor
Sexual desire
Smell
Social chemosignaling
Subjective significance
Journal
Archives of sexual behavior
ISSN: 1573-2800
Titre abrégé: Arch Sex Behav
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 1273516
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
11 2022
11 2022
Historique:
received:
20
11
2021
accepted:
07
08
2022
revised:
06
08
2022
pubmed:
24
8
2022
medline:
18
11
2022
entrez:
23
8
2022
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
Olfactory sensations contribute to sexual desire and sexual behavior. However, the degree to which individual importance of olfactory function and body odors relate to sexual desire is not known. This study was conducted to preliminarily examine these relationships among Chinese college students (N = 1903) via the Importance of Olfaction Questionnaire, the Body Odor Sniffing Questionnaire, and the Sexual Desire Inventory, which were used to measure subjective significance of olfaction, frequency of sniffing self or others, and sexual desire, respectively. Individuals who assigned higher importance to olfaction or engaged more in body odor sniffing showed stronger sexual desire. We further explored these associations in different cultures to determine whether cultural consistency existed. We conducted a second study to make cross-cultural comparisons between Indian (N = 313) and US (N = 249) populations. For both countries, a higher importance placed on olfaction and a higher prevalence of body odor sniffing were consistently associated with stronger sexual desire. In conclusion, our study confirmed that people who placed more value on olfactory function or engaged more in body odor sniffing showed stronger sexual desire. These correlations were consistent for both sexes and across different cultures, further indicating the importance of olfaction in sexuality.
Identifiants
pubmed: 35997908
doi: 10.1007/s10508-022-02398-1
pii: 10.1007/s10508-022-02398-1
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
3703-3713Informations de copyright
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
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