Elsevier

Biological Psychology

Volume 70, Issue 3, December 2005, Pages 197-204
Biological Psychology

Subthreshold amounts of social odorant affect mood, but not behavior, in heterosexual women when tested by a male, but not a female, experimenter

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2005.01.008Get rights and content

Abstract

Previously, we have demonstrated that exposure to the endogenous steroid androstadienone has the ability to modulate women's mood in that they feel more focused [Lundstrom, J.N., Goncalves, M., Esteves, F., Olsson, M.J., 2003a. Psychological effects of subthreshold exposure to the putative human pheromone 4,16-androstadien-3-one. Hormones and Behaviour 44 (5), 395–401]. Here, we tested the hypothesis that androstadienone exposure would modulate participating women's mood and corresponding behavior as measured by a sustained attention task. Thirty-seven women participated in a double-blind, within-group experiment and were tested by either a female or a male experimenter. Effects on mood, psychophysiological arousal, sustained attention, and ratings of male facial attractiveness were assessed. Sensory detection of the experimental substance was rigorously controlled for by psychophysical testing. The results showed that exposure to a non-detectable amount of androstadienone modulated women's psychophysiological arousal and mood in a positive direction but did not change attention performance or rating of facial attractiveness. Moreover, mood effects were only evident when an experimenter of the opposite sex conducted the testing. This suggests that social context is important for mood effects of androstadienone exposure in women.

Section snippets

Participants

Thirty-seven women with a mean age of 25.35 (S.D. = ±4.63) years with a normal menstrual cycle were recruited through posters on the campus area. All participants reported absence of nasal congestion and infection, olfactory dysfunctions, use of tobacco products, and use of any hormonal substances, including oral contraceptives, during the last 6 months. All described themselves as heterosexual. Based on self report of menstrual onset, four participants were deemed to be tested during menses

Results

A Student's t-test revealed that there was no difference from the expected chance level in performance in the discrimination tests for participants in either the androstadienone (2.9 ± .22) or control session (3.1 ± .24), all Ps > .64. The participants could not discriminate between the experimental and control solutions. We therefore conclude that the demonstrated effects reported below are caused without conscious awareness of the androstadienone present in the experimental solution.

Discussion

The current study suggests that exposure to a non-detectable amount of the steroid androstadienone affects women's mood. Women reported an increase in overall positive mood and a decrease in overall negative mood while exposed to androstadienone. There is now an increasing amount of evidence indicating that androstadienone has the ability to modulate primarily, but not exclusively, women's self-reported mood. However, to fit a more conservative definition of a human pheromone, exposure of a

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Swedish Council for Research in Social science and Humanities (HSFR: F0868). We thank Veronica Warner for help with data collection; Julie Boyle, and Elissa Patterson for helpful comments on previous versions of this paper. Further, we would like to acknowledge the help from Professor Dan Larhammar and Dr. Ingrid Lundell for the preparation of test substances.

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