Photo credit: arstechnica.com
Study Explores the Role of Scent in Friendship Formation
In a fascinating exploration of social connections, researchers led by Gaby et al. organized a unique “Speed-Friending” event at a university, focusing on the role of scent and visual cues in establishing friendships among female participants. The study engaged 40 female volunteers and was structured into four distinct phases designed to evaluate personal preferences in friendship.
The initial phase involved participants having their headshots taken. Following this, the volunteers viewed photographs of their peers and rated the potential for friendship based purely on visual impressions. In the subsequent phase, each participant wore a T-shirt for a duration of 12 hours while going about their daily routines. These shirts were later collected in plastic bags for further experimentation. In a noteworthy twist, the participants then smelled the T-shirts anonymously and rated the friendship potential of those who wore them. This sensory experience was followed by a live interaction segment, where each woman engaged in a four-minute conversation with another participant, after which they assessed friendship potential once more. This interaction was then followed by a final round of odor-based evaluations.
The findings were striking: a strong correlation emerged between the friendship ratings based on in-person interactions and those derived from the scent-based assessments. Notably, evaluations made post-conversation effectively predicted shifts in rankings noted in the final round of odor assessments, highlighting an intriguing aspect of learned social responses.
“Everybody showed they had a consistent signature of what they liked,” commented co-author Vivian Zayas from Cornell University. “And the consistency was not that, in the group, one person smelled really bad and one person smelled really good. No, it was idiosyncratic. I might prefer person A over B over C based on scent, and this pattern predicts who I end up liking in the chat. People absorb a great deal when they meet face to face. However, scent—often processed subconsciously—may provide an early indicator of whom we might connect with.”
The authors of the study noted some limitations in their research, particularly the narrow focus on college-aged heterosexual women. They suggested that variations might arise in how olfactory and other social cues influence friendship dynamics across different demographics, including older and younger women, men, and various cultural contexts. They expressed the potential for future research to broaden the participant base to different age groups, stages of life, and even study male-to-male friendships, as well as how scent influences social interactions in diverse cultural settings.
For further reading, the study is published in Scientific Reports, 2025. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-94350-1.
Source
arstechnica.com