Originally published at: An odorless compound emitted by people could make women aggressive and men docile | Boing Boing
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An odorless compound emitted by people could make women aggressive and men docile
I have a baseless theory, allow me to regale you with it.
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There seems to be a LOT of assumptions built into their experimental model…
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No doubt Reps MTG and Lauren Boebert stir copious amounts of this into their Starbucks every morning.
Humans emit a compound called hexadecanal (HEX for short) from their skin, saliva, and feces…women exposed to the chemicals become more aggressive, whereas men become more passive.
Okay, so the next time some MAGA nuts go on the rampage, we all encircle them and do a spit-n-shit?
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Was going to say “do you want Reavers? Because that’s how you get Reavers” but yeah
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This sounds like a good approach regardless of whether there’s anything to this pheromone research.
(just make sure that everyone’s on the same page that it’s #2 and not #1, I hear that that excites the tRumpublican males…)
Humans emit a compound called hexadecanal (HEX for short) from their skin, saliva, and feces. Newborns release copious amounts of the compound from their heads.
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Several experiments have shown that women exposed to the chemicals become more aggressive, whereas men become more passive
If only I’d pursued funding for my own study. IIRC, the women in my family got really aggressive when similar compounds were discovered in large amounts of clothing. The men were not only more passive, they also developed complex strategies to distance themselves from repositories where prolonged exposure might occur. 
Perhaps it was due to contact with various types of fabric, but the compounds I remember were far from odorless…
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I honestly would be more inclined to guess that kind of learned response, even if we don’t consciously register its scent. People keep assuming their should be human pheromones, and searched enough that it’s not surprising there are some ostensibly positive results…but other mammals detect those with a vomeronasal organ, and often a Flehmen response, and we don’t have those, so I’m not sure why that would be expected in the first place.
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Probably wi$hful thinking on the part of researchers desperate to create something like “Hey, You” or “Red Flag.” 
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Sans “odorless”, we’re looking at a “guy farts” situation.
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I mean, that’s definitely an interest. People have already been selling those…I can remember seeing online ads for very expensive colognes containing androsterone, a steroid found in male sweat, claimed to be a sex pheromone that will help men pick up women. It’s actually a sex pheromone in pigs, where it’s how sows recognize the presence of boars.
But, well, even if it were a pheromone in humans too, that would basically presume the reason the men are having trouble finding partners is
- They don’t smell sweaty enough, and
- Women are having trouble telling they’d be interested in mating.
And…I don’t know, somehow I’m not convinced those are the real problems to correct. 
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“And that is why Dad never goes to the State Fair any more.”
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