New Dating Project Aims To Pair Couples Using Sense Of Smell

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Love is in the air. Can you smell it?

A recent dating project put body odor to the test to see if there could be a couple-connection based solely on scent.

As it turns out, there's solid science to back up the attraction of "smell dating."

It might not be the most conventional way to find a mate, but a person's smell - their body odor - can be a powerful tool when it comes to the chemistry of love and attraction.

"When I get to know someone, I actually smell their neck and it was a source of comfort to me," Nicki Gallaher said.

"I definitely know that scent can trigger feelings and emotion and memory," Verna Sulpizio said.

"People can pick out who they are attracted to at least partially based on smell," Dr. Paul Zak said.

Could the future of matchmaking be men and women sniffing unwashed T-shirts to see if there's an olfactory attraction?

An experiment with three men and three women was based on a project called "Smell Dating."

"The truth is that we're smelling other people all the time, but we just, it's not part of our vocabulary to talk about it," Smell Dating Co-Founder Sam Lavigne said.

The connections that were made from participants smelling only a small swatch of a smelly T-shirt were almost intuitive.

They had no other knowledge about who they were smelling.

"We had lots of people go on dates," Lavigne said. "We also had a lot of people sort of emailing back and forth, where they are kind of relating to other people just on this one sense."

There's a reason connections were made - the science of pheromones.

"Pheromones are unconscious smells that we process," Dr. Zak said.

So instead of love at first sight, maybe it's really love at first smell.

"If you're going to be around someone for a long time, you have to tolerate them and evolution has given a little guidance based on smell," Dr. Zak said.

In this experiment, scientists charted participants' physical reactions and a connection to a potential soulmate was in the air.

"It's very intimate, very intimate, you have to put yourself out there to do it," Lavigne said.

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