It is a Canadian university which has demonstrated it through a surprising study:the smell of our partner has a soothing effect and notably allows us to reduce our level of stress. To reach this conclusion, the scientists carried out tests on women, since it is the sex that has the best sense of smell (and knock!). Men were thus asked to wear a neutral t-shirt for 24 hours (=which has not been washed so as not to compromise the smell with the detergent) and not to wear perfume or smoke, history that it is really body odor that is present on the fabric (yum!). The t-shirts were then put in the freezer to preserve the odor molecules. The women in the pairs were then exposed to an intense stress situation, before which they smelled 3 distinct t-shirts:a new one, that of their partner and someone else's t-shirt. Verdict?
The level of cortisol (the stress hormone) was measured just after the stressful context:women who smelled their partner's scent were much less stressed than those who had smelled someone else's scent , or no smell at all. The explanation? We are unconsciously afraid of strangers (kidding aside of course), and this is true with everything that is unknown to us, including smells. As a result, a smell that we do not know cannot have a reassuring effect. Perhaps we should develop our sense of smell, like dogs, who only use their noses to orient themselves, to search... While we humans are content to use them in case of great necessity and favor our view.
