The problem with the love potions of old or human pheromones is that they are non- specific. The object of your affections could sip the doctored wine during a romantic evening out-and leave with the waiter or waitress. Rather, we are looking for some- thing that not only stimulates affection, but also points it in your direction. I suspect that the answer to this problem may have been around for a while. The male mice in the study were lit- erally able to sniff out some expression of the distinguishing MHC markers in the females and chose their sexual partners accordingly.
Humans are no exception, it seems.
They conducted their investigations under scrupulously sound control conditions and cautiously eliminated anything that might falsify the score. The results, confirmed statistically, show that male body odours were considered more pleasant by women with a dissimilar set of MHCs. The really intriguing result was that if the women were on the Pill, they preferred the smell of men with a similar set of MHCs. Fascinating conclusions spring to mind which Wedekind and colleagues seemed studiously to avoid. The difference in preferences of women taking the Pill shows that hormones can influence the choice of a mate.