Female sweat odor in stressful situations repels those around her

Austrian scientists conducted unusual research – they studied the smell of sweat that women emit in various situations. The result was very interesting, it turns out that sweat that appears as a result of severe stress is more repulsive to others than the one that appears in the heat or after physical exertion. “Stressful” sweat has a greater impact on the opinion of others about a woman as a trustworthy, competent and self-confident person.

A person tends to sweat in three cases - during physical exertion, in extreme heat, and during strong emotional stress (when internal "overheating" is observed). Exocrine glands, which are located almost over the entire surface of the body, are responsible for the secretion of sweat in the human body. The composition of human sweat mainly contains water and a small amount of salts. During stress, apocrine sweat glands join the work of the exocrine glands, which secrete a sticky secretion. Most of the apocrine glands are located in the armpits, in the lower abdomen, on the genitals. When the secretion of the apocrine glands gets on the skin, it attracts bacteria and as a result the smell of sweat becomes unpleasant and sharp. Stress in some cases begins suddenly, the work of the sweat glands intensifies, you must agree that it is not very pleasant that, for example, during an important meeting or a long-awaited date, a woman begins to smell sharply and unpleasantly of sweat.

Scientists decided to determine what effect the smell of sweat with apocrine secretion has on a woman's image. The study involved 44 women, with an average age of 32. Scientists collected 3 sweat samples: after physical exertion, after extreme heat, and under stress. To induce a stressful state in women, they were given the task of giving a speech in front of a large audience, which was given only 10 minutes to prepare, as a result of which all participants in the experiment broke out in sweat.

The sweat samples obtained in this way were given to 120 different people of both sexes, who had to determine the business qualities of a woman and how attractive she was to them based on the smell of sweat. During the experiment, the participants watched videos with images of a woman working in an office, doing housework or with children.

The opinion was unanimous: the smell of "stress" sweat formed the opinion that women were insecure, which negatively affected the opinion of both men and women about them. But the smell of sweat caused by physical exertion or heat formed a less negative opinion of the women in the video.

After conducting the study, the experts concluded that chemocommunication signals transmitted by apocrine glands are important and affect human behavior. It is absolutely clear that the smell of sweat caused by a stressful situation, both in humans and animals, is not conducive to social relationships. Such information is transmitted and received at the subconscious level, so in everyday life it is very important to consider how the smell of sweat can affect social contacts.