Did you know that body odor and how a person smells can affect one's self-confidence and attractiveness as perceived by others?  Duh right?  I mean, that's pretty obvious but now there's an actual scientific study on it.  

A study done a Liverpool college looked at the effect of body odor and it's impact on their self-confidence and perceived visual attractiveness to women.  

Basically they took a group of 35 males.  Half were given a normal, scented, anti-microbial deodorant while the other half were given placebo deodorants that had no deodorant properties of any kind.  

Each person from both groups were then asked to rate themselves on self-confidence and attractiveness, as well as make a video of how they would act if being introduced to a beautiful woman.  

Photos were also taken of each participant.

A panel of 8 females were asked to then rate each participants photo on attractiveness as well as to rate each video on how confident and attractive they thought each person was. 

The female judges were not aware of the nature of the experiment.

Well as it turns out, there was NO difference in attractiveness between either group based on the pictures.  However, after watching the videos, the placebo deodorant group was rated as significantly less confident and attractive in comparison to the deodorant group.  

Remember, the female judges had no idea how any of the male participants smelled like.  It was purely based on visual perception.

So what does that mean....

Well basically it's safe to say that when you think you smell good, you create an aura or impression of confidence... and as we all know, confidence can be a very attractive quality.  

Cool beans!

Roberts, S., Little, A. C., Lyndon, A. A., Roberts, J. J., Havlicek, J. J., & Wright, R. L. (2009). Manipulation of body odour alters men's self-confidence and judgements of their visual attractiveness by women. International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 31(1), 47-54. Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19134127

 

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