Sniff your way to love? Singles who attend so-called pheromone parties haven't ruled it out.
The get-togethers _ which have been held in New York and Los Angeles and are planned for other cities _ ask guests to submit a slept-in T-shirt that will be smelled by other participants.
Then, voila! You can pick your partner based on scent, or so the theory goes.
The parties started as an experiment in matchmaking by a California woman weary of online dating, but it turns out they also have a root in science. Researchers have shown that humans can use scent to sort out genetic combinations that could lead to weaker offspring.
At an art gallery in Los Angeles on a recent night, partygoers huddled around several tables covered with plastic freezer bags stuffed with shirts and an index card bearing a number. Once they found one they liked, a photographer snapped a picture of them holding the bag and projected it onto a wall so the shirt's rightful owner could step forward and meet his or her odor's admirer.
Konstantin Bakhurin, a 25-year-old neuroscience graduate student, said he bypassed the bags that smelled like baby powder or laundry detergent or perfume in search of something more unique: the owner of a distinctive yellow-T-shirt whose fragrance he described as “spicy.''
“I think it's probably a bit more pseudoscience,'' said Bakhurin. “I just kind of came here for kicks to see what would happen.''
Judith Prays, a web developer, said she came up with the idea for pheromone parties after she failed to find a match online. Prays said she'd date men for a month or so before things soured until she started seeing a man who wasn't what she was looking for and wound up in a two-year relationship.
What she remembered was his smell.
“Even when he smelled objectively bad, I thought he smelled really good,'' the 25-year-old said. “And so I thought, OK, maybe I should be dating based on smell?''
At first, it was an experiment. Prays invited 40 friends to a party in New York and asked them to sleep in a T-shirt for three nights, put it in a plastic bag and freeze it, then bring it to the party. Bags were coded with blue cards for men and pink for women and numbered so the shirts' owners could pinpoint their admirers.
The night was a hit, Prays said, adding that half a dozen couples hooked up and one pair formed a relationship. Since then, she has held similar parties in New York and Los Angeles and is planning others for Atlanta and San Francisco.
Research studies using similar T-shirt experiments have shown that whose smell a person prefers is dictated by a set of genes that influence our immune response _ which researchers say is nature's way of preventing inbreeding and preserving genetic adaptations developed over time.
“Humans can pick up this incredibly small chemical difference with their noses,'' said Martha McClintock, founder of the Institute for Mind and Biology at the University of Chicago. “It is like an initial screen.''
In one such study, McClintock and her colleagues had participants sniff inside a covered box without knowing that in some cases they were smelling worn T-shirts. What they found was people preferred the odors of those who had different genetic makeups from their own, but not radically different.
In Los Angeles, several dozen 20-somethings posed playfully for the photographer with shirts they liked, hoping the owner might step forward and say hello.
Few did. Some admitted they had seen their number flashed on the wall but were too shy to identify themselves.
But there was still plenty of chatter as beer-sipping singles turned up their noses at bags that smelled like hiker's sweat and their aunt's old carpet and took a second whiff of sweet and musky fragrances they liked but couldn't peg _ a playful exercise that served as an icebreaker to what otherwise could have been an awkward gathering of strangers.
Karen Arellano said she didn't really come to the party in search of love.
“I don't think I'm going to find anything more than, `Hi, how are you,' a conversation,'' the 29-year-old baker said. “That's expectation enough.''
Prays said she's learned from the experience that while scent is powerful, it isn't enough to detect a good match.
“Animals have babies and they move on, and that's what the pheromone party is,'' said Prays, who may start including a few pertinent details on the index cards, like a person's relationship expectations. “The most successful thing about it is, it opens up conversation.''
<한글 기사>
美서 유행하는 데이트법 '페로몬 파티'
뉴욕, LA에 이어 애틀랜타, 샌프란시스코도 파티 예정
상대방 체취로 사랑하는 사람을 구하는 새로운 데이트 방식이 미국 뉴욕과 로스앤젤레스 등 일부 도시들에서 선풍적인 인기를 끌고 있다.
말하자면 독신들이 며칠간 입고 잠을 잔 티셔츠들을 파티 주선자를 통해 이성을 구하는 상대 독신들에게 제시, 냄새를 통해 짝을 고르도록 함으로써 자신과 데이트 할 이성을 만나는 형식이다.
이런 만남을 참가자들은 '페로몬 파티'라고 부른다. 이성을 유혹하는 물질로 알려진 `페로몬`에다 모임이라는 의미의 파티를 합친 합성어다.
'페로몬 파티'는 뉴욕과 로스앤젤레스 등 대도시에서는 이미 빈번하게 이뤄졌고, 애틀랜타와 샌프란스시코에서도 곧 자리가 마련될 예정이다.
이 '페로몬 파티'의 창안자는 주디스 프레이스. 올해 25세로 웹 개발자인 프레이스는 온라인으로 짝을 고르는 게 결국 실패로 돌아가자 페로몬으로 짝을 고르는 아이디어를 생각해 냈다.
실제 그녀는 온라인으로 몇몇 이성을 만나 데이트를 하기도 했지만 결국 자기가 찾는 사람이 아니라는 생각을 하게 돼 헤어지곤 했는데, 결국 남는 것은 그 사람들 체취였다는 것이다.
헤어졌던 남자들이 아주 역겨운 냄새라고 느낀 것을 자신은 정말 좋은 냄새라고 느낀 경우도 있었고, 마침내 냄새가 이성 간 동질성을 유지해주는 기준이 될 수 있다는 판단하에 냄새로 데이트하는 방법을 강구해 보자는 생각을 하게 됐다고 프레이 스는 설명했다.
첫 시험은 뉴욕의 한 미술관에서 이뤄졌다. 친구 40명을 이른바 '페로몬 파티'로 초대했다. 참석 조건은 사흘간 입고 잔 티셔츠를 비닐백에 담아 냉장고에 보관했다가 제출하는 것이었다.
남자가 제출한 백은 청색 카드, 여성이 제출한 백은 핑크빛 카드를 부착했고, 짝을 찾는 이성이 자신이 좋아하는 냄새를 가진 셔츠를 선택하면 그 옷의 소유주와 짝을 맺게 해주는 방식이었는데 첫날 행사는 그야말로 대박을 터뜨렸다.
이날 행사에 참석했던 25세의 신경계를 전공하는 대학원생 콘스탄틴 배커린은 "베이비 파우더나 세탁 탈취제, 독특한 냄새를 풍기는 향수 등의 냄새가 나는 티셔츠 는 고르지 않았다"면서 "이런 식으로 짝을 고르는게 과학적인 근거가 있다고 본다"고 말했다.
시카고대학 심성•생물학연구소 설립자인 마사 매클린토크는 "인간은 코를 통해 아주 미세한 화학적 차이만으로도 상대방 짝을 고를 수 있다"면서 "그것은 마치 초기 스크린을 하는 것과 마찬가지"라고 설명했다.
