A WHIFF of male sweat might help men鈥檚 magazines fly off the shelf.
Michael Kirk-Smith at the University of Ulster, UK, and colleagues, asked 120 student volunteers to rate the woman鈥檚 magazine Allure, National Geographic and Men鈥檚 Health. Half wore masks sprayed with a pheromone found in men鈥檚 underarm sweat. Women appeared to be completely unaffected, but the men exposed to androstenol found Men鈥檚 Health more appealing and were more likely to say they would buy it (Psychology and Marketing, DOI: 10.1002/mar.20082).
But Nick Neave, an expert on hormones and behaviour at the University of Northumberland, UK, doesn鈥檛 think men鈥檚 magazines will be soaked in male sweat any time soon. 鈥淚n the real world there are so many different influences competing for your attention it鈥檚 unlikely one factor such as androstenol could make you pick one magazine over another.鈥�
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