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The female smell of perspiration in a stressful situation repels others

 
, medical expert
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
 
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14 November 2013, 09:00

Austrian scientists conducted unusual studies - they studied the smell of perspiration, which women singled out in different situations. The result turned out to be very interesting, it turns out that the sweat that comes out as a result of strong stress, more repels others, even the one that appeared during the heat or after physical exertion. "Stress" sweat in a greater degree affects the opinion of others about a woman, as a trustworthy, competent and self-confident person.

It is peculiar for a person to sweat in three cases - during physical exertion, in extreme heat, with strong emotional disturbances (when internal "overheating" is observed). For the allocation of sweat in the human body, the exocrine glands are responsible, which are located practically on the entire surface of the body. The human sweat composition preferably contains water and a small amount of salts. During stress, the apocrine sweat glands are connected to the work of the exocrine glands, which secrete a sticky secret. Most of the apocrine glands are located in the armpits, in the lower abdomen, on the genitals. When you get to the skin, the secret of the apocrine glands attracts bacteria and as a result, the smell of sweat becomes unpleasant and harsh. Stress in some cases begins suddenly, the work of the sweat glands intensifies, you will agree little pleasant in that, for example, during an important meeting or a long-awaited appointment, a woman begins to sharply and unpleasantly to smell sweat.

Scientists have decided to determine what effect the smell of sweat with apocrine secret has on the image of a woman. The study involved 44 women, middle-aged 32 years. Scientists selected 3 sweat samples: after physical exertion, after intense heat and stress. To cause stress for women, they were given the task of making a speech in front of a large audience, which was given the opportunity to prepare for only 10 minutes, as a result of all the participants in the experiment, threw into sweat.

The sweat samples obtained in this manner were provided to 120 different people of different sex who were supposed to determine the woman's business qualities and how much she liked them. During the experiment, participants watched videos featuring images of a woman working in an office dealing with household chores or children.

The opinion was unanimous: the smell of "stressful" sweat formed the opinion that women are insecure, which adversely affected the opinion of them, both men and women. But the smell of sweat, caused by physical stress or heat, did not form such a negative opinion about women on video.

After the study, experts concluded that the chemocommunication signals that are transmitted through the apocrine glands are important and affect human behavior. It is quite clear that the smell of sweat caused by a stressful situation, both in humans and animals, does not favor social relationships. Such information is transmitted and accepted at the subconscious level, so in everyday life it is very important to consider how the smell of sweat can affect social contacts.

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