We’ve all heard people talk about chemistry, something hard to define as a key ingredient in the success of relationships. Evolutionary psychology has said good 1)riddance to 2)Freud and the 3)Oedipus Complex and all that other 4)transcendent stuff and hello to simple survival skills. It hypothesizes that we tend to see as attractive, and thereby choose as mates, people who look healthy. And health, say these evolutionary psychologists, is manifested in a woman with a 70 percent waist-to-hip ratio and men with 5)rugged features that suggest a strong supply of 6)testosterone in their blood. However, when it comes to love, the enduring topic, new theories always spring up. Some scientists did some research on that topic and found out that smell is an important part of attraction and a woman needs a good sense of smell to find a man who is just right for her.
我们都听说过“化学”这玩意儿,但要将其定义为两性成功配对的主因则有点儿难。从进化心理学角度来说,它可是摆脱了弗洛伊德和他提出的“恋母情结”及其他先验理论,而对“单纯的求生技能”表示赞许。该理论假定我们往往选择有吸引力的个体为自己的另一半,即那些看上去健康的人。而所谓的健康,那些进化心理学家说,在女人身上表现为腰臀围比例成7:10,在男人身上则表现为五官粗犷——这表明他们血液中含有大量睾丸激素。然而,就“爱情”这个永恒的主题,新理论总是层出不穷。一些科学家就该主题做过一些调查,发现气味是吸引力的重要组成部分,女性需要有良好的嗅觉才能觅得自己的理想伴侣。
Women of the world, are you smelling Mr. Right or Mr. Wrong?
One interviewee named Sara expressed her opinions. “I wouldn’t really know. People choose who they choose and, you know, love is love. But I do like the way men smell, so if they smell good, I get more attracted to them. So eventually maybe I can sniff the right man out.”
Maybe a woman can eventually find her Mr. Right, if her sniffer is working properly. As for men, is it the same case?
“I do believe that sense of smell can affect to you. But it’s also a lot about, you know, just your personal preference on what type of girl you would like,” said Josh, one male interviewee.
世界各地的女士们,你们“嗅”到的是真爱还是错爱?
一位名叫莎拉的受访者表述了她的观点:“我真的不是很清楚。人们选择他们所选择的,而且,你知道,爱就是爱。但我的确会留意男性的体味,所以如果他们的体味好,他们对我来说就更具吸引力。所以最终,也许我能‘嗅出’我的真命天子。”
如果一个女人的嗅觉不错,也许她最终能找到她命中注定的另一半。那么对于男人来说,情况是否一样呢?
“我的确相信气味会影响你的选择,但你也知道,自己对女孩子的类型偏好也会有很大的影响。”一位男性受访者乔希说道。
The secret of sexual attraction lies in the smell of a person, according to a recent study made by the researchers. Professor Rachel Herz, of 7)Brown University, used a group of 231 8)heterosexual college students to compare what men and women look for when selecting a mate. Though both sexes said a good personality was an important factor in choosing a mate, they could not deny that odor factor worked when it comes to searching for their “significant other.” Female students 9)singled out body odor from all other sensory experiences as the most likely to affect desire, while men were relatively neutral on a lover’s natural scent. And the motivation behind all this is that body smell is linked to a person’s 10)immunological 11)make-up. Professor Herz said that by nature a woman’s sense of smell can attract her, often subconsciously to a man whose genes will work well with her genes to produce healthy and strong children. That’s keeping the human species going.
据研究人员最近所做的一次研究表明,异性相吸的秘密在于个人的体味。布朗大学蕾切尔·赫茨教授请来231名异性恋大学生,来研究比较两性在选择伴侣时寻求的是什么。尽管两性都称在选择伴侣时,对方拥有良好的人格至关重要,但他们亦不否认当寻找他们“重要的另一半”时,气味因素也起作用。女学生把体味从其他所有感官体验中挑出来作为最可能影响选择的因素,而男人在情人的自然体味这点上则持较为中立的看法。而这一切背后的动机是,体味与一个人的免疫构造相关。赫茨教授说,一个女人天生的嗅觉通常能使她下意识地为一些基因与其基因相匹配的男性所吸引,而女人与这些男人结合能生育出健康强壮的孩子。正是这才使人类得以繁衍生息。
“It’s true that both sexes valued pleasant 12)disposition as the most important criterion for mate choice. But it is inevitable that they devote much attention to each other’s odor even though women valued smell and ambition more highly than did men, while men valued looks a little more highly than women,” said Professor Herz.
Since smell has always been an important part of attraction, how would people feel about choosing a prospective date based on scent?
One German website is offering 13)lovelorn 14)singletons the chance to sniff out their soulmate using their smell. Founded by biologist August Hammerli, Basisnote will have a database of profiles that can help members choose partners based on scent. Users are invited to take a simple test, which they have to pop into their mouth for just five minutes, to create their individual chemistry or scent profile. Their profile, which will also contain the usual information on looks and interests, is then “scent matched” with other suitable profiles with the site providing a scale from 1 to 100 for how well you match. Basisnote also gives users a 15)bar code that represents their scent profile—if you put two scent profiles on top of each other, you can see how well they match. Mr Hammerli claims matching people to the right scent produces healthy babies.
“That is the reason why we feel attracted to those people that have a good match in terms of this scent profile.”
“两性都把对方是否有讨人喜欢的性格看作择偶最重要的标准,这点是真的。尽管女人相比男人更为看重对方的体味与其野心抱负,相比之下,男人更为看重异性的相貌,但两性还是不免会很关注对方的体味。”赫茨教授说道。
既然一个人的体味总是其吸引力的重要组成部分,那么人们对于基于气味而选择未来的约会对象有何感受?
德国一个网站向失恋单身人士提供通过对方体味而“嗅”出其灵魂伴侣的机会。由生物学家奥古斯特·韩默里创建的“基础笔记”公司将拥有一个能帮助会员通过嗅觉选择伴侣的数据库。他们会先邀请用户参加一个简单的测试,测试仪器会探进他们嘴里五分钟,以此建立个人化学或是气味档案。他们的档案里也包含了相貌和个人兴趣此类常见信息,接着,系统将其档案和其他与之相配的档案进行“气味匹配”,页面会通过分数的形式(1到100分)来显示两者体味的匹配程度。“基础笔记”公司还会给用户一个条形码,用以代表其体味档案——如果你把两个体味档案叠加,你就可以看到他们的匹配程度。韩默里先生声称,“气味相投”的男女能生育出健康的婴儿。
“从这个体味档案,我们可以得知为什么我们为那些‘气味相投’的人所吸引了。”
