3. Certain smells
Meston and Buss explain that, for women, sense of smell is far more important than it is to men when it comes to sexual attraction. Simply put: if a woman doesn’t like the way a man smells, it’s often a deal-breaker — whether she consciously realizes it or not. The number one turn-off reported by most women is — not surprisingly — bad breath, says Buss. A woman’s sense of smell also plays an interesting biological role in what attracts her to a man, according to Meston: “Olfactory signals provide a woman with a wealth of information about a man’s health, hygiene, and even his genetic makeup,” she notes. Pheromones — tiny airborne molecules that humans emit from various glands in their body — can influence a woman’s desire to be sexually intimate with a man. Male pheromones have been shown to provide information on a man’s symmetry, which is an indicator of genetic fitness and ultimately can determine whether a man is genetically compatible with a woman. “For many women — whether they realize it or not — scent can play an important role in determining her willingness to have sex with a man, given her ‘sense’ of whether they can produce genetically healthy, strong children together,” says Buss.
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