Why we can fall in love at first smell

JUST one whiff of someone’s natural body scent could be enough to fall in love, research has suggested.

Smell could also be key to the way humans bond, the study found. Some animals use odour from an early age to create attachments to family – and humans may develop relationships in a similar way, the researchers claimed.

This means our response to other people’s odour could be a key mechanism in deciding whether we like someone.

Smell has long been known to affect relationships but scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have now found out more about why this is.

The researchers looked at why young tadpoles swim with their families. The study, published in the journal Neuron, found that tadpoles could ‘smell’ chemical signals emitted by their family.

The scientists said that tadpoles released the ‘happy’ chemical dopamine when with their families. But dopamine was switched to another chemical, GABA, when forming relationships with other tadpoles.

This process is known as ‘neurotransmitter switching’.

It means smell could play an important part in human relationships because of the different chemicals the brain releases when bonding with family – or someone new. Co-author Dr Davide Dulcis said: ‘You can imagine how important this is for social preference and behaviour. We have innate responses in relationships, falling in love and deciding whether we like someone. We use a variety of cues and these odourants can be part of the social preference equation.’