Archives of Sexual Behavior ‚ Vol. 27 ‚ No.

1‚ 1998

Ph erom on al Influences on Sociosexual Beh avior

in Men
Win n ifred B. Cutler ‚ Ph .D.‚1 ‚4 Erika Friedm an n ‚ Ph .D.‚2
Norm a L. McCoy‚ Ph.D.3

This study tested whether synthesized hu m an m ale pherom on es in crease the

sociosexual beh avior of m en . Thirty-eigh t heterosexu al m en ‚ ages 26 ¯ 42 ‚
c o m p leted a 2 -w eek b aselin e perio d a n d 6-w ee k pla c ebo -c o n tro lled ‚
dou ble-blin d trial testing a pherom one “designed to im prove the rom an ce in
their lives. ” Each subject kept daily beh avioral records for 6 sociosexu al
behaviors: petting/affe ction/kissing ‚ formal date s‚ informal date s‚ slee ping
ne xt to a romantic partne r ‚ se xual inte rcourse ‚ a n d se lf-stimulatio n to
ejaculation (m asturbation ) an d FAXed them each week. Significantly m ore
pherom one than placebo users increased above baseline in se xual inte rcourse
and sle eping with a romantic partne r. There was a tendency for m ore phero-
m on e than placebo users to in crease abo ve baselin e in pe tting/affe ction/
kissing ‚ an d informal date s‚ but not in self-stimulation to e jaculation or in
formal date s. A sign ificantly larger proportion of ph erom on e than placebo
users increased in ³ 2 an d ³ 3 of the 5 sociosexual beh aviors involving a
female partner. Thu s‚ there was a significan t in crease in m ale sociosexual
behaviors in which a wom an ’s sexual in terest an d cooperation plays a role but
not in m ale m astu rbation which involves on ly the m an . Th ese initial data need
replication bu t suggest that hum an m ale ph erom on es affected the sexu al
attractiveness of m en to wom en.
KEY WORDS: human pheromone ; men; se xual attractivene ss; se xual be havior; social behavior.

1
Athena Institute for Women ’s We llness Research ‚ 1211 Braefield Road ‚ Cheste r Springs ‚
Pe nnsylvania 19425.
2
Departme nt of Health and Nutrition Sciences ‚ Brooklyn College ‚ Brooklyn ‚ New York 11210.
3
Departme nt of Psychology‚ San Francisco State University‚ San Francisco ‚ California 94132.
4
To whom correspondence should be addre ssed.

0004-0002/98/0200-0001$15.00/0 Ó 1998 Plenum Publishing Corporation

2 Cu tler ‚ Fr iedm an n ‚ an d McCoy

INTRODUCTION

The te rm “ phe romone ” was introduce d to the scie ntific lite rature in
1959 by Karlson and Luscher who de fine d it as: “ a substance se creted by
an animal to the outside of that individual ‚ which is then re ceived by an-
othe r individual ‚ classically of the same spe cie s‚ which the n e licits some
behavioral or developme ntal response in the latte r.” According to most bio-
logic views‚ pe rception is not ne cessary. Rather‚ a change in behavior is
sufficie nt e vide nce that phe romone s exist e ve n in the abse nce of aware ne ss
of be havioral change .
By 1986 ‚ phe romonal excretion from glands at the anus ‚ urinary outle t‚
bre asts ‚ mouth ‚ and axillae in a varie ty of spe cies was well e stablishe d
(Cohn ‚ 1994; Filsinge r et al.‚ 1984; Gower‚ 1972; Gower et al.‚ 1985; Russell ‚
1976) . Furthe rmore ‚ expe riments de monstrate d change s in spe cie s-specific
reproductive or social be havior as well as the fe male reproductive cycle in
response to both naturally occurring and artificially applie d phe romone s
(Bartoshuk and Beaucham p ‚ 1994; Cowle y and Brooksbank ‚ 1991; Gus-
tavson et al. ‚ 1987; Singe r‚ 1991) . The manufacture of chemical duplicate s
le d to efficient methods of artificial inse mination in swine ‚ dive rsion of de-
structive pe sts from vege tation ‚ and most re cently‚ to se x attractants in cos-
metics (Singe r‚ 1991; Gower and Rupare lia ‚ 1993; Knowlton ‚ 1994) .
A discre te ‚ and highly specialize d anatomic locus for the reception of
phe romonal stimuli is well establishe d in nonhuman mammals within the
vome ronasal organ ( V NO ) ‚ a spe cialize d olfactory structure (Me redith ‚
1991; Wysocki and Lepri‚ 1991) . The V NO is e sse ntial for the full and rich
panoply of normal re productive function in some cases as e vide nce d by
both stimulation and ablation expe riments (Wysocki and Le pri‚ 1991) . Re-
cently the V NO was clearly identifie d as pre sent in normal human anatomy
(Garcia-V e lasco and Mondragon ‚ 1991). Putative phe romone s puffe d into
the nose were shown to cause a slow electrical pote ntial from the region
of the V NO (Monti-Bloch and Grosser‚ 1991). Howe ver‚ no studie s have
reporte d on behavior change in re sponse to stimulation of the human V NO
receptors.
In her landmark study‚ McClintock (1971) de monstrate d menstrual
synchrony among women living toge ther and hypothe size d that such syn-
chrony was due to phe romone s. She sugge sted that wome n in close contact
with each othe r transmitte d a phe romone that affected menstrual onset
timing.
Be tween 1979 and 1989 ‚ a serie s of relate d publications by Cutler and
her colle ague s demonstrate d that a woman ’s sexual e xposure to a man at
le ast once per wee k— but not masturbation —was associate d with an in-
creased freque ncy of regular 29.5 ± 3 day menstrual cycles (Cutle r et al. ‚
Ph erom onal In fluen ces in Men 3

1979a ‚ 1983 ‚ 1985) ‚ an increased incide nce of fe rtile -type basal body tem-
perature (BBT) graphs (Cutle r et al.‚ 1985) ‚ and double the estroge n leve l
in the lute al phase (Cutle r et al. ‚ 1983; Cutle r‚ Garcia ‚ et al.‚ 1986; McCoy
et al.‚ 1985) . Studie s that analyze d de tails of sporadic and celibate patte rns
of behavior re ve aled that whe n sexual activity occurred sporadically ‚ in-
creases in total freque ncy were associate d with an increase d incide nce of
subfe rtile cycle s (Cutle r et al.‚ 1979b ‚ 1980) . The se studie s found a rela-
tionship be tween sexual activity and menstrual cycle parame te rs (length ‚
estroge n leve l‚ fertile-type BBT graph) but provide d no de finitive evide nce
concerning the re ason for this association.
In 1983 ‚ V e ith et al. showe d that wome n who “ sle pt with ” a man two
or more times during a 40-day study period had a significantly highe r in-
cide nce of ovulation than those who had slept with a man less often. In
1991 ‚ Burleson et al. defined se xual be havior according to the weekly‚ spo-
radic ‚ and celibate criteria describe d by Cutle r et al. (1979a) and replicate d
the ir findings concerning menstrual cycle le ngth. They re porte d that wee kly
active wome n had significantly le ss variable cycle le ngths than did women
with either celibate or sporadic patte rns ‚ and that mean cycle le ngths were
not diffe re nt among the thre e behavioral groups ‚ just the variation about
the mean ‚ i.e .‚ their abe rrance . They also replicate d Cutler et al.’s findings
of a lack of association be tween masturbation fre quency and cycle length.
In a late r re port‚ Burle son et al. (1995) attempte d to te st se xual behavior
fre quency patte rns using a 7-day moving ave rage without first dichotomiz-
ing behavior into weekly and < wee kly. They then reporte d that highe r av-
e rage coun ts of se xual be havior pe r we e k we re assoc iate d with le ss
fe rtile -type cycle le ngths. Be cause wome n with highe r “ ave rage wee kly
counts ” may be sporadically active ‚ Burleson et al. ’s failure e ithe r to cite
the ir own 1991 re plication of Cutle r et al. or to include an analysis and
explanation to account for the see mingly paradoxical effe ct of increased
sexual be havior associating with increase d infertility‚ le aves the re ade r un-
able to interpre t the meaning of their 1995 pape r.
The search for the source of both the menstrual synchrony effe cts as
well as men ’s putative influe nce s on wome n ’s cycle le ngths led to the dem-
onstration in double -blind place bo-controlle d trials that phe romone s ap-
pear to exist in humans (Cutle r et al.‚ 1986; Preti et al.‚ 1986 ‚ 1987) . Furthe r
studie s of wome n sugge sted that application of fe male phe romone s to the
skin unde r the nose ‚ 3 times pe r wee k‚ increase d the fre quency of their
sexual be havior (Cutler‚ 1987; Cutle r and Stine ‚ 1988) .
Although studie s of menstrual cycle length and incide nce of wee kly
coitus sugge st that both men ’s and wome n ’s phe romone s may affect the
reproductive functioning of women ‚ studie s examining the effe ct of male
phe romone s on the sexual behavior of wome n have not bee n reporte d pre-
4 Cu tler ‚ Fr iedm an n ‚ an d McCoy

viously. This double -blind place bo-controlle d study‚ be gun in Se pte mber
1994 ‚ te ste d the effe ct of human male phe romone s on the sociose xual be-
haviors of men and by implication ‚ the sexual response s of the wome n they
encounte re d ‚ as well as the men ’s perception of the se e ffects.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Su bject Recru itm ent

From local pre ss rele ase s and ne ws announce ments ‚ men responde d
to an opportunity to participate in an e xpe riment that was de scribe d as
testing whethe r a male phe romone adde d to the ir afte rshave lotion would
“ increase the romance in the ir live s.” Participants were re quire d to be
male ‚ hete rosexual ‚ be twee n the age s of 25 and 42 ‚ in se lf-re porte d good
he alth ‚ ne ithe r unusually handsome nor unattractive ‚ have a cle an-shave n
appe arance ‚ shave re gularly ‚ and have ade quate social skills vis- à -vis
wome n.
The men were scree ned for ade quate social skills base d upon the Eye-
se nck Pe rsonality Inve ntory (EPI-Q ). Any man whose score was more than
2 standard deviations above the Eyesenck’s Manual standardize d ne uroti-
cism ‚ e xtrave rsion ‚ and psychoticism statistic was disqualifie d. Me n also
signe d the following state ment that was include d in the application mate-
rials: “ I furthe r affirm that my basic social skills are already ade quate to
allow me to e njoy the company of a romantic partne r and to treat he r in
a manne rly way. ”
The men comple ted an extensive history‚ an application form acknow-
le dging willingne ss to fulfill the te rms of the study‚ and a medical history
form that detaile d sickne ss‚ dise ases‚ family history‚ and se xual history. Con-
curre nt use of recreational or pre scribed drugs or serious disease were fur-
the r crite ria for disqualific ation. Each man ’s signature atte sting to the
accuracy of his data was accepte d ‚ and no furthe r atte mpt at verification
was made.
As an induce me nt to comple te the study‚ the me n we re inform e d
that the ir tre atme nt condition would be re ve ale d at the e nd of the study‚
and at that time ‚ all place bo subje cts would re ceive a vial of the phe ro-
mone .
A que stionnaire comple ted at the end of the study aske d whe the r the
man had followe d the protocol ‚ prospe ctively recording data ‚ or had waited
Ph erom onal In fluen ces in Men 5

to fill in the daily records whe n it was time to FAX. Any man indicating
that he backfille d was disqualifie d.

Sam ple

O f 53 responde nts‚ 48 arrive d for an intake inte rview and 1 of the se

was eliminate d base d on EPI-Q score . Thirty-e ight men comple te d the trial:
17 phe romone ; 21 place bo. O f the 9 subje cts lost‚ 3 did not comple te the
base line pe riod ‚ 1 lost his job ‚ 1 move d away‚ 2 quit without e xplanation ‚
and 2 othe rs were disqualifie d for failing to follow the protocol. Although
no restrictions were provide d for race ‚ all but one initial applicant and all
38 who comple te d the study were White .
Average age of the men was 33.5 ye ars (SD = 5.0). The initial status
of the ir re lationships was e ithe r not dating but wou ld like to be (ND) ‚ dating
(D) ‚ keeping steady com pan y (KC) ‚ or m arried (M). Table I shows the num-
ber of men in each of these four cate gorie s as well as their mean age ‚
he ight ‚ and we ight by group assign m e nt ( phe romone ‚ plac e bo) . A 2
(Group) ´ 4 (Relationship Status) chi-square analysis reve ale d no signifi-
cant diffe re nce be tween the two groups in relationship status‚ c 2(3 ‚ N =
38) = 4.82 ‚ p = 0.19. Analyse s also reveale d no significant diffe re nce s be-
tween the two groups for age ‚ t( 36) < 1 ‚ height ‚ t(36) = 1.4 ‚ p = 0.16 ‚ and
weight ‚ t( 25.17) < 1. The de gre es of fre edom for the analysis of group
differences in weight were adjuste d because of une qual variance s re ve aled
by Le vene ’s Te st for Equality of V ariance s.

Table I. Initial Age ‚ He ight‚ Weight ‚ and Re lationship Status for Subjects by
Tre atment Group
Pheromone Placebo
(n = 17) (n = 21)
x SD x SD

Age (years) 33.1 4.9 33.8 5.2

He ight (inches) 69.6 2.5 71.7 2.7
Weight (pounds) 189.7 32.4 187.0 19.7

Relationship status n % n %
Not dating but would like to be (ND) 7 41.2 9 42.8
Dating (D) 2 11.8 8 38.1
Ke eping steady company (KC) 2 11.8 1 4.8
Married (M) 6 35.3 3 14.3
6 Cu tler ‚ Fr iedm an n ‚ an d McCoy

Proced ure

The men attende d an initial intake inte rview to comple te scree ning ‚
sign informe d conse nt forms previously approve d by the Athena Institute ’s
Human Studie s Committee ‚ adopt a code identity‚ and revie w the study
protocol. Each man brought his afte rshave lotion with him ‚ and the tech-
nician examine d it to make sure it was a nonspray ‚ alcohol-base d product.
The name of the afte rshave was re corde d‚ and each subje ct was instructe d
to use it after e ach shave and at least three times pe r week.
Subje cts were give n printe d be havioral calendars for FAXing. The six
behaviors to be recorded daily and FAXed weekly to the senior author ’s
office ‚ for the ne xt 8 wee ks ‚ were pettin g/affection /kissing‚ form al dates (pre-
arrange d) ‚ inform al dates (not arrange d before that day) ‚ sleepin g next to a
rom an tic partn er‚ sexual intercou rse‚ and self-stim ulation to ejacu lation (mas-
turbation) . The men were also re que sted to re port wee kly whe ther they
had notice d any change in their expe rience s with women. Data were gath-
ere d from men only; this study did not gathe r data from the women who
inte racted with our subje cts.
At the e nd of the base line pe riod lasting 2 weeks‚ each man re turne d
with his afte rshave lotion and sele cted a code d 5-ml vial containing either
ethanol or phe romone with e thanol. The technician poure d the vial ’s con-
te nts into 2 ounce s of the subje ct’s aftershave . V ials were ide ntical in ap-
pe arance and ne ithe r the te chnician nor the subje ct kne w whe the r the
sele cted vial containe d phe romone or place bo. The code from the sele cted
vial was recorde d on the subje ct’s be havioral cale ndars for FAXing.

Ph erom on es

The phe romone formulation was a synthe tic ve rsion of a phe romone
naturally se creted by men and describe d in earlie r work (Pre ti et al.‚ 1987) .
The developme nt of the phe romone involve d re fining a proprie tary for-
mula ‚ characte ristic of heterose xual men in their se xually most active ye ars.
The identity of the se substance s will be disclose d whe n the pate nt proce ss
is comple te d.

Statis tical Evalu ation

The occurrences of e ach of the six sociose xual behaviors and men ’s
perception of a change in their e xpe rie nce with wome n was evaluate d. SPSS
for Windows (SPSS ‚ 1993) was utilize d for all data analyse s‚ as detaile d
below.
Ph erom onal In fluen ces in Men 7

Behavior

For e ach man the total numbe r of days on which a measure d event
occurre d was score d for each of the six behaviors for e ach wee k of the
2-we ek baseline and the 6-wee k trial period. A subje ct was characte rized
as showing an incre ase ove r baseline whe n (i) his average wee kly score for
the expe rimental period excee de d his ave rage weekly score for the base line
wee ks and (ii) his highe st weekly base line score was excee ded at le ast once
during the expe rimental pe riod ‚ if his base line score was not already at
maximum. For each be havior ‚ as appropriate to the sample size ‚ a chi-
square or Fisher exact probability te st was use d to te st for diffe re nce s be-
tween the two groups in the numbe r of subje cts showing an incre ase over
base line .

Perceptions

Each wee k men were asked to report whethe r they had notice d any
change in the ir “ e xpe riences with women.” The numbe r of individuals per-
ceiving positive change s during any of the e xpe rime ntal weeks was counte d.
A Z test was used to compare those using place bo with those using phe ro-
mone ; the te st e xamine d the proportions of men who pe rceive d positive
change in sexual behavior as a function of which additive (phe romone or
place bo) the y use d.

RESULTS

Aftershave Usage

During the 6 e xpe rime ntal weeks ‚ daily cale ndars showe d an ave rage
use of the afte rshave of 5.82 ( ±0.98) time s pe r week for phe romone users
and 5.29 ( ±1.24) times per week for place bo users. Usage did not differ
significantly be tween the two groups ‚ t(36) = 1.49 ‚ p = 0.15.

Socios exu al Beh avior

The re porte d wee kly behaviors are presented in Table II. Data that
fulfille d the de finition of increase above base line are unde rline d. Contin-
gency table s (2 ´ 2) were use d to assess the significance of the difference
betwee n the two groups in the numbe r of men who increased ove r base line
for each of the six sociose xual behavior categorie s. With the exception of
8 Cu tler ‚ Fr iedm an n ‚ an d McCoy

Table II. We ekly Number of Days of Occurrence of Each of Six Sociosexual Behaviors for
Each Subject for the Two Baseline and Six Experimen tal Weeks a
Self-
Initial Slee ping stimula-
re lation- Se xual ne xt to a Petting tion to
ship inter- romantic affection Informal Formal ejacula-
Condition status course partner kissing dates dates tion

Pheromone
Subject
S10 ND 00000001 00012001 23453345 22210221 01003001 21223232
S16 ND 00000010 00000010 10100111 00100010 10000101 00000000
S21 ND 00000000 00001000 01021010 00010110 01011000 77565473
S45 ND 01111231 30121221 00122221 43001001 00120010 25333303
S46 ND 00000000 00000000 00000001 00100111 00001001 00000000
S47 ND 00000001 00000001 00001011 00010001 00001011 00000000
S34 ND 00000001 00000000 00000000 00000000 00001000 11111110
S14 D 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 77773777
S36 D 00000000 10000000 10000000 00000000 10000000 10010000
S39 KC 42445445 66445445 66045445 00001002 66544443 10231221
S08 KC 00000000 00000000 33213312 10112011 23301322 00000000
S06 M 22223232 71767777 75777777 33000000 00002000 11211116
S09 M 00011000 77576774 00011000 00000000 00000000 01000031
S42 M 32233202 57655243 64475223 11021000 00010031 00000000
S02 M 31111122 75774777 11111101 00000000 00000000 12101111
S07 M 21120221 76777774 76777774 00000000 00000000 00000000
S51 M 00000000 67263476 12000000 00000000 00000000 34035434

Placebo
Subject
S33 ND 00000000 00000000 00000111 00001101 00000010 45545444
S48 ND 00010110 01100112 04242522 11020110 12113323 21202100
S03 ND 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00100000 22123222
S17 ND 01010000 00000000 01010010 01010000 00000010 00000000
S24 ND 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 11000110 00000000
S25 ND 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
S29 ND 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000001 76646357
S30 ND 01000000 00000000 01200000 00000100 01000010 00000000
S35 ND 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
S18 D 22423434 25433535 06323534 12100001 10000503 00001100
S41 D 00000000 00000000 00002300 00000000 11123301 00000000
S05 D 00000000 00000000 20000000 01111110 32120222 32231222
S13 D 11011000 00001000 23222241 20020121 33213120 76677474
S20 D 22001102 34222343 54223303 22000000 32302030 00000000
S23 D 04200000 04000000 04000000 00000000 00000000 11030111
S32 D 10100100 10000000 21211300 00000000 32421310 10000000
S38 D 20212210 20101110 41423221 20222221 21202110 00000000
S15 KC 00000000 00000000 41411140 00000000 00000000 21331221
S11 M 24114410 77777777 77777777 00000000 00000000 10221222
S27 M 12101011 77777777 13202202 00000000 00000000 77507777
S40 M 01010101 77777575 11010101 00000000 00000000 00000000
a
Cells that are underlined show an increase over baseline.
Ph erom onal In fluen ces in Men 9

Table III. Number of Subjects with an Incre ase Over Baseline for Each of Six
Sociose xual Behaviors by Treatme nt Group
Treatment
Pheromone Place bo
(n = 17) (n = 21)
Sociosexual behavior n % n % p

Sexual intercourse 8 47.0 2 9.5 .01

Sleeping next to a romantic partne r 6 35.3 1 4.8 .02
Petting/affection/kissing 7 41.2 3 14.3 .07
Informal dates 6 35.3 2 9.5 .06

Formal dates 7 41.2 7 33.3 .62 a

Self-stimulation to ejaculation 4 23.5 2 9.5 .23

c (1‚ N = 38) = 0.25.

a 2

the analysis of form al dates ‚ all probability le vels are from Fishe r exact prob-
ability tests. For e ach be havior ‚ the numbe r of subje cts in the phe romone
and place bo groups who incre ase d ove r base line and the Fishe r e xact prob-
ability leve ls are presented in Table III.
A significantly highe r proportion of phe romone use rs than place bo us-
ers showe d an incre ase over base line for sexual in tercourse and sleeping next
to a rom an tic partn er. The re was a tende ncy for a gre ater numbe r of phe ro-
mone users to incre ase above base line in petting/affection/kissin g and in for-
m al dates. The proportions of phe romone and place bo users showing an
increase over base line in self-stim ulation to ejacu lation and form al dates did
not diffe r significantly.
The numbe r of participants showing incre ases above base line in more
than one of the five sociose xual be haviors involving a fe male partne r re-
vealed that incre ase s above baseline in two behaviors or more were signifi-
cantly more fre quent for those in the phe romone (n = 10/17 ‚ 58% ) than
those in the place bo (n = 4/21 ‚ 19% ) group ‚ c 2(1 ‚ N = 38) = 6.4 ‚ p <
0.02. In addition ‚ significantly more me n in the phe romone (n = 7/17 ‚ 41% )
than in the place bo (n = 2/21 ‚ 9.5% ) group showe d an increase above base -
line in three or more be haviors (Fisher e xact te st‚ p = 0.03) .

Perception s

A statistically significant and substantially highe r proportion of phe ro-

mone use rs perceived positive results during the expe rimental 6-wee k pe-
10 Cu tler ‚ Fr iedm an n ‚ an d McCoy

riod than did the place bo use rs (phe romone use rs 47% vs. place bo users
24% ; Z = 5.05 ‚ p < 0.001) .

DISCUSSION

In this prospe ctive double -blind ‚ place bo-controlle d study of six dis-
crete sociose xual be haviors ‚ human male phe romone s cause d a statistically
significant and distinct increase in the two most intimate behaviors: sexual
inte rcourse and slee ping with a woman. These are sociose xual be haviors
in which the willingne ss of a fe male partne r plays a major role. The re was
a te nde ncy for phe romone s to increase the ne xt most intimate be haviors
of petting/affe ction/kissing and informal date s. Human male phe romone s
did not cause an incre ase in those be haviors in which a woman doe s not
play a major role. Neithe r‚ masturbation ‚ which may re flect a simple in-
crease of libido ‚ nor formal dating ‚ which re quire s advance d planning and
assertion ‚ were incre ased by the phe romone .
The perception of effe cts‚ while significantly highe r in phe romone us-
ers than in place bo users‚ was not as substantial as the actual increase over
base line of the prospe ctive ly re corde d ‚ sociose xual be haviors. Me n ‚ it
see ms‚ did not always accurate ly perceive the romance in their live s.
It is particularly note worthy that the masturbation rate did not increase
in men who use d the phe romone compare d with men who use d place bo ‚
while the numbe r of days of slee ping with a partne r and of se xual inter-
course did. If replicate d in large r and more dive rse sample s‚ these re sults
would sugge st that phe romone s in humans have e ffects that are not fun-
dame ntally diffe re nt from those in othe r animals and insects; the unde rlying
physiologic mechanisms are probably similar give n that phe romone s appe ar
to have mediate d sexual attraction be tween our subje cts and the ir partne rs.
A good candidate for the pote ntial site of neuronal reception would be
the V NO (Gowe r and Rupare lia ‚ 1993; Takami et al.‚ 1993) .
The the saurus define s “ attraction ” as the “ quality that elicits admira-
tion or pleased responsive ne ss or a re lationship of pe ople . . . that are
drawn toge the r and e xert influe nce on e ach othe r.” “ Sexual ” attraction
would refer to this quality in the se xual sphe re. Although we have gathe red
data only from he te rosexual me n ‚ we deduce that male se xual attractive ness
must have incre ase d because the male phe romone users increased their
rate of intimate be haviors with wome n while the rate of masturbation and
formal dating did not differ significantly from that of place bo use rs.
The more subtle issues that could influe nce the pote ntial response to
phe romone s should be addre ssed in future studie s. For example ‚ the role
of an establishe d re lationship in the re sponse to phe romone s is of consid-
Ph erom onal In fluen ces in Men 11

erable inte re st. The presence of a partne r (dating or married) may make
it e asie r to se e re sults due to the availability of a partne r. O n the othe r
hand ‚ if the re lationship is a trouble d one ‚ an ongoing relationship may
make it more difficult to see positive effe cts of phe romone s. Thus ‚ both
the existence of an e stablishe d relationship and the le ngth and quality of
that re lationship are important variable s for future re se arch studying the
effe cts of men ’s phe romone s on sociose xual behavior.
Initial re lationship status was not held constant in this study and varie d
from “ not dating but would like to be ” to “ marrie d.” Howe ve r‚ we suspe ct
that the status “ not dating but would like to be ” probably re pre se nts the
group most unlike ly to be subje ct to compe ting relationship influe nce s that
might obscure e vide nce of incre ase d sexual attraction due to phe romone s.
Forty-one pe rcent (n = 7) of the men who use d phe romone and 43% (n =
9) of the men who used place bo had this status. All 7 of the “ not dating ”
men ( 100% ) who use d the phe romone showe d increase s above base line
for at least two of the five sociose xual be haviors involving a female partne r;
6 of the 7 (86% ) incre ased in thre e or more such categorie s. In comparison ‚
only 2 (22% ) of the 9 “ not dating ” subje cts in the place bo condition showed
increases over base line in two or in thre e or more of these sociose xual
behaviors. Thus ‚ the stronge st support for the effe cts of male phe romone s
occurre d in men who‚ it can be argue d ‚ were pote ntially most like ly to
reveal it.
Although both phe romone and place bo users had reason to have the
same e xpe ctations ‚ signifi cantly more phe rom one than place bo use rs
showed an increase over base line in the two most intimate be haviors re-
quiring the willingne ss and participation of a fe male partne r— but not those
in which the partne r playe d a minor role . Thus ‚ it is sugge ste d that human
male phe romone s‚ as applie d here ‚ incre ase d the se xual attractive ness of
men to women in our study.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Ms. Brooke Wolle nberg is thanke d for he r valuable work in reference

colle ction ‚ manuscript re view‚ and e valuation.

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