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Showing posts with label test. Show all posts
Showing posts with label test. Show all posts

Friday, June 18, 2010

The sweaty t-shirt experiment

I heard about this study years ago, but was reminded recently by one of my hypnotherapy professors.

How fascinating. They've scientifically proven people choose mates based on scent and it's so deeply ingrained in our biology that we choose people who will (with us) create offspring with the highest probability of surviving and flourishing.

I don't think it works with deodorant or perfume, though most people know that those things don't truly mask a person's natural odor completely, so something in our olfactory system can probably smell through the cover-up.

Let me know what you think, and if you've experienced some olfactory arousal with your current or previous loves.



Sweaty T-Shirts and Human Mate Choice
Evolutionary psychology is a relatively new field. Scientists like Victor Johnston study the human brain and human behaviors -- why we do the things we do -- in the context of evolution. This clip outlines the "sweaty T-shirt" experiment, which showed that the sense of smell may have more to do with mate choice than previously thought. Females sniffing the T-shirts recently worn by males favored the scent of those whose immune response genes were different from their own. Meredith Small and Geoffrey Miller are also interviewed. From Evolution: "Why Sex?"
Credits: © 2001 WGBH Educational Foundation and Clear Blue Sky Productions, Inc. All rights reserved.
Sweaty T-Shirts and Human Mate Choice
View in:
QuickTime | RealPlayer
Resource Type:
Video
Format:
QuickTime or RealPlayer
Length:
3 min, 11 sec
Topics Covered:
Adaptation and Natural Selection
Backgrounder
Sweaty T-Shirts and Human Mate Choice:
Maybe it's not similar interests, horoscope signs, looks, or proximity that make women and men fall in love. According to evolutionary scientists, when people throw up their hands and say "it was just chemistry," they may be on to a fundamental factor in mate choice.

Subtle chemical signals, or pheromones, have long been known to draw pairs together within the same species, and for a specific reason. In mice, for example, experiments showed that pheromones acted as attractants between males and females who were genetically similar except that they differed in a certain type of immune system gene. That difference is actually a survival benefit: The combination of two individuals' different MHC (major histocompatibility locus) genes gives their offspring an advantage in beating back disease organisms.

So the mice could smell a genetic difference. But could modern humans, who aren't known for a particularly good sense of smell, also make that distinction?

In the first "sweaty T-shirt" experiment, a Swiss zoologist, Claus Wedekind, set up a test of women's sensitivity to male odors. He assembled volunteers, 49 women and 44 men selected for their variety of MHC gene types. He gave the men clean T-shirts to wear for two nights and then return to the scientists.

In the laboratory, the researchers put each T-shirt in a box equipped with a smelling hole and invited the women volunteers to come in, one at a time, and sniff the boxes. Their task was to sample the odor of seven boxes and describe each odor as to intensity, pleasantness, and sexiness.

The results were striking. Overall, the women preferred the scents of T-shirts worn by men whose MHC genes were different from their own.

The experiment did not test men's perceptions of female scents, but the results certainly suggest that evolution has provided humans, not just mice, with a transmitter and receiver for genetic information that could influence mate choice.

And all this even before the first date!

Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/6/l_016_08.html



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Thursday, May 27, 2010

The One-Minute Happiness Quiz

My new friend Ray Sahelian told me about his book and quiz, so I thought I'd share it on my blog. Let me know how you come out and what you think.

One side note. Our happiness and mood can vary, but will typically be in a range so if you have a number that you'd like to raise, see what you can do in the next few days to create more happy-producing behaviors and patterns.

For example, in the past I had a tendency to get irritated with Marcus when he was running late when we have a meeting together. This happened yesterday, and I felt the familiar irritation rising. So I took myself aside, mentally and spiritually, and said, "just try to be calm and happy about how you talk to Marcus and help both of us get ready to leave. Just try it out and see how it goes." Well, it worked. Instead of being irritated and impatient, I just watched my breathing and got myself ready to go. I was happier and Marcus... well Marcus is usually pretty happy irregardless of what's going on around him; but it certainly raised my happiness quotient yesterday. (By the way, I often use the word try when I talk to myself because it provides less argument fodder for the ego. In other words, try is harder for my ego to fight against; it helps my ego acquiesce.) Today's a new day. I played volleyball this morning in the drizzling pseud-rain and it kind of put me in a funk. So today my strategy is to pamper myself a little as a reward for playing my regularly scheduled volleyball class (instead of skipping). I'm off to do that. Relax. Breathe. Pamper. Simple, but they seem to raise my feelings of joy and happiness.

Take the quiz today and then start looking at how you behave, respond, and act in certain situations; see if you can try something else. See if you can raise your number.

The One-Minute Happiness Quiz 

Circle a number in each category. The higher, the truer.
  1. I have a healthy personality with high self-esteem, strong willpower, and a positive attitude. 1 2 3 4 5
  2. I feel connected with and have loving relationships with family, pets, friends, spouse, or lover. 1 2 3 4 5
  3. Old or new emotional wounds have healed. I harbor no grudges. 1 2 3 4 5
  4. I have meaningful goals that I'm passionately pursuing. 1 2 3 4 5
  5. Work (and/or school) is satisfying. 1 2 3 4 5
  6. I am financially secure. 1 2 3 4 5
  7. I have many interests and pleasures. 1 2 3 4 5
  8. I am physically healthy, I exercise, sleep well, eat well, and have low stress. 1 2 3 4 5
  9. I enjoy learning and acquiring knowledge. Furthermore, I use my creative talents. 1 2 3 4 5
  10. I have a personal truth or belief system that provides a meaning to my life. 1 2 3 4 5

    Score: Total _________
    Quiz score interpretation:




    10-15 Double your Prozac dose*
    16-25 There's room for improvement
    26-35 Very good. You can learn to be happier.
    36-49 Congratulations. Consider writing your own book on happiness.
    50       Incredible! Hold on to something. You may be levitating at any moment. 
     
    *I do believe our friend Dr. Sahelian is being a little sarcastic with 10-15.







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