I've read the entire Princess Diaries series twice, and if you have read any of he books, you will notice Mia's obsession with the smell of Michael's (her boyfriend) neck. She always has to smell it in order to feel comforted and she loves it. However, she gets a new boyfriend in the 9th book and no matter what cologne she gives him, he doesn't smell right.
Mia isn't crazy, although some beg to differ, she is experiencing a major histocompatibility complex, MHC. MHC is a family of genes that are responsible for mate selection through olfaction (sense of smell). The book briefly mentions that you are more likely to select a mate that smells different from you to prevent genes that are too similar and will produce weaker offspring. Women are more likely to choose a mate that smells differently in order to produce offspring with better immune systems and a lower risk of inbreeding. The book also mentioned speculation that women on contraceptive pills no longer chose mates who smelled different from them since they couldn't ovulate, which makes sense.
This video explains how MHC is there to seek out and destroy all the infections that enter the body by killing pathogens, parasites, viruses or malfunctioning cells. Remember, the more dissimilar the MHC, the better the person will smell to you, if they are not wearing cologne or perfume.
There was an experiment done on this and it involved men wearing their t-shirt for a nights when they go to bed. The shirts were then collected and given to women to smell and rate the men's sex appeal solely based by their smell. The women ended up choosing the man that had genes that were different from their own. Choosing a mate with different genes gives the offspring a better chance for survival.
Something interesting (and a bit gross) that I learned while doing research on this was that there's a trend going around known as pheromone parties. For this "party" you bring a sweaty shirt in a plastic bag, number it, pass it around to guests to smell, and whoever chooses your shirt as the best smelling one, is your MHC match.
Next time you pass by someone who smells good, will you wonder, "Is that my mate?"
That is kind of funny. I like that idea of a pheromone party! Just kidding, it seems gross like you said. There is evidence to support what you say similar to how it seems that kissing also allows people to choose their mates based on their chemical make up as well. I have heard of MHC but have never actually researched and I may do that after reading your blog about it.
ReplyDeleteHaha you guys are funny! That is gross, but it’s interesting to see the results. I didn’t know that we used smell to tell how apart our genes were, and to prevent inbreeding. That is soo cool, our body never seems stop amazing me. It is so so complex and wonderful.
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