Love at first smell, and what stinky t-shirts tell us about attraction

“There’s
no Brad Pitt of smell,” Herz says. “Body odor is an external
manifestation of the immune system, and the smells we think are
attractive come from the people who are most genetically compatible
with us.”

“Not
only does kissing serve the utilitarian purpose of providing a sample
of MHC, but it also magnifies the other attraction signals–if only as
a result of proximity.” — Time Magazine

But sometimes the tastes and scents can trick us, or other factors, such as the “divorce pill” make us think something is right for us when it may not be so. These insights found in a pile of stinky t-shirts.

Cover stories this month in both Psychology Today and Time magazine reveal why we kiss, why we flirt, why women’s menstrual cycles sync, and many other keys to attraction. It’s all so…romantic.