Star-struck Posted July 18, 2003 Share Posted July 18, 2003 Has there ever been any testing done with pheromones and homosexuals. By nature, a man/woman should not be effected by pheromones emitted by another man/woman. Given that a homosexual is attracted to members of the same sex, will a homosexual actually experience a physiological effect from the pheromone emissions of a member of the same sex? This would lend credence to one view, which is that homosexuals are born as such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kettle Posted July 18, 2003 Share Posted July 18, 2003 As far as I'm aware, evidence tends to lean towards homosexuality being congenital. In the majority of cases, there is no psychiatric explanation for a persons sexuality - various Psychiatric and Psychological institutions have now confirmed that homosexuality is not a illness and removed it from their list of mental conditions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Star-struck Posted July 18, 2003 Author Share Posted July 18, 2003 I wonder, if homosexuality is congenital, how far does the defect go? I say defect based solely on the basis of coupling for procreation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sayonara Posted July 18, 2003 Share Posted July 18, 2003 What do you mean by "how far does it go"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Star-struck Posted July 18, 2003 Author Share Posted July 18, 2003 For instance, how, if at all, would pheromones from both same and opposite sex subjects effect a homosexual physiologically? There have been experiments where pheromones, from both the same and opposite sex, have been introduced to a heterosexual subjects vomeronasal organ. The subject experienced certain physiological reactions to the pheromones from the opposite sex while the pheromones of the same sex had no effect. Would a homosexual experience exactly the opposite effect by reacting to the pheromones of the same sex subject vice the opposite sex? If homosexuality is a congenital defect, vice a psychological matter, couldn't we expect this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skye Posted July 18, 2003 Share Posted July 18, 2003 I didn't think humans responded to any pheromones, or at least sex pheromones. If we did I'd bathe in the stuff before going to the pub Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dudde Posted July 19, 2003 Share Posted July 19, 2003 eheheh... yeah I don't think that humans really pick up heavily on the pheramones for mating purposes...really the good looks and things like that seem to do it nowadays no wonder I've never had a date:( ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morrgan Posted August 24, 2003 Share Posted August 24, 2003 Just wanted to clear something up: aren't pheromones basically what makes someone have a specific odour? Human pheromones may not be that important these days as they once were, but there's bound to be something left of those responses. I doubt they make much difference as far as dating is concerned, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do have an impact on longterm relationships. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glider Posted August 25, 2003 Share Posted August 25, 2003 Skye said in post #6 :I didn't think humans responded to any pheromones, or at least sex pheromones. If we did I'd bathe in the stuff before going to the pub I don't think they do either, at least girls don't. I heard somewhere that "Girls don't like boys, girls like cars and money". This hypothesis is supported to a degree by empirical observation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skye Posted August 25, 2003 Share Posted August 25, 2003 Hmm I have neither a car nor money, but I've had a girl for the last year and a half... They didn't anything about ravishing good looks, off-the-scale intelligence and monastic selflessness did they? Maybe it's my sense of humour. If there are sex pheromones then they don't do there job very well, we seem to have no idea when a person is fertile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morrgan Posted August 25, 2003 Share Posted August 25, 2003 Well considering the frequent showering/bathing we do, and use of perfumes, aftershave and other scents, it's really no wonder that sex pheromones have no effect anymore. That's why I was more curious about the possible effects in a longterm relationship, where both partners get to see (and smell) the worse sides of each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sepultallica Posted August 25, 2003 Share Posted August 25, 2003 Glider said in post #9 : I don't think they do either, at least girls don't. I heard somewhere that "Girls don't like boys, girls like cars and money". This hypothesis is supported to a degree by empirical observation. does cool water and nautica qualify as a pheromones? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMI Posted August 25, 2003 Share Posted August 25, 2003 I just saw a documentary on pheromones in humans. They do indeed exist and it has been shown that they play a major factor in attraction. They are released via sweat duct and also in our breath. They actually have colognes and perfumes that contain human pheromones. Problem is that they aren't guaranteed to work any better than your own. Different people respond differently to different pheromones. You could mask your own pheromones, which may have worked better for you, by dousing yourself with someone else's. Moral of the story, just be yourself Keep in mind, pheromones is just one facet of what it takes to get a woman these days. The money, looks, and car are still a necessity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sepultallica Posted August 25, 2003 Share Posted August 25, 2003 IMI said in post #13 :The money, looks, and car are still a necessity funny stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morrgan Posted August 26, 2003 Share Posted August 26, 2003 Thanks for the information, IMI. For some reason I find this a very interesting subject. One more question... (I seem to have many. ) I've also heard that pheromones might have some impact on genetic variety. The less closely related, the more attractive the pheromones are. I have no idea if this is true or not, nor if this would be true for humans, does anyone know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Theory Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 There was a study done where women reacted most favourably to a shirt worn by a man that had the least amount of a type of genetic similiarity. There have been studies on men who react most favourably to a more 'young and attractive' woman's shirt. They were all on discovery channel, so maybe there's more infomation on their site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Theory Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Here it is: It turns out that when women picked t-shirts, they were looking for the same thing. They instinctively preferred males with the greatest immune diversity. http://exn.ca/Stories/2001/11/15/51.asp If the men had similar immune systems to the woman, the woman didn't like that shirt as much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blike Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Milinski, M. & Wedekind, C. Evidence for MHC-correlated perfume preferences in humans. Behavioural Ecology 12, 140 - 149 (2001). Wedekind, C., Seebeck, T., Bettens, F. & Paepke, A. J. MHC-dependent mate preferences in humans. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 260, 245 - 249 (1995). If anyone can get access to those articles, let me know. Those are the ones you are referring to, chaos. Here's a short nature article on them: The sweet smell of the immune system Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Theory Posted August 28, 2003 Share Posted August 28, 2003 Perfume and pheremones are completely different, unless they can get actual human pheremones in the perfume. It was on TV, so I'll keep an eye out for them. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddha Posted May 18, 2005 Share Posted May 18, 2005 The study on homosexuality and pheromones are another eye-wash. The basics of such a theory are wrong. How can the conculsions be correct. There is no such thing as 'sexual orientation'. 'Gay' is a socio-political identity not a biological identity. People who classify themselves as gay, or those who are forcibly classified as such differ so much from each other --- especially in terms of gender --- which is a biological divide. How can you conduct a biological study on a political group? All they would do is pick up 'men' with strong feminine gender (most of the 'gay' population) and then conduct studies that actually reflect their gender and not sexual orientation. But the results are forwarded as that representing sexual orientation. Whereas, when masculine men are tested they would provide another set of results. This is not the first time, the western society used science to prove sexuality as it saw it. In the earlier days they conducted researches on 'homosexuals' that came to mental asylums and then concluded that most homosexual men are mentally sick. No one thought at that time that the wrong sampling could be leading to wrong conclusions. Any study which seeks to study 'gay' men without referring to their 'gender' will lead to wrong conclusions --- but ones that will suit the western world fine. Has any of these studies tried to clearly define what 'gay' is? and clearly demarcate them from heterosexuals --- by devising clear cut definitions? These definitions are not even clear in the general society where confusions on these abound. Can any one here clearly define what is a: - homosexual - heterosexual? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted May 18, 2005 Share Posted May 18, 2005 Closed - posting in a thread that hasn't been used for 2 years isn't appropriate or necessary. Especially when the post is the one above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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