Research shows that "congenial" is more likely to become friends

as everyone knows , Mammals like dogs smell each other to decide who is their friend , Who is the enemy . Now? , Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel found , The human process of making friends has a similar “ chemical reaction ”, You may choose friends according to the similarity between someone's smell and yourself . The study was published in a recent 《 Scientific progress 》 The journal .

“ Given that a friend's body odor and his own body odor can induce similar brain activity patterns , But exposure to the smell of strangers can trigger very different limbic fear brain responses , We hypothesize that the similarity of body odor may contribute to the rapid formation of friendship .” The researchers wrote in their paper that .

Researchers recruited 20 For close friends of the same sex . They treat each other “ feel like old friends at the first meeting ”, Quickly became friends . The researchers hypothesized that this “ chemical reaction ” It may be affected by factors such as body odor similarity .

These participants were asked to wear clean cotton T T-shirt , Avoid using perfume and soap , Avoid spicy food , They were also asked to stay away from their partners while sleeping . When researchers use a method called “ Electronic nose ” Compact gas sensing equipment “ smell ”T Found after shirt , The odor characteristics between these friends are closer than those between non friends .

In another test , Researchers recruited 25 Volunteers are human analysts , Let them compare the smells of the above friends with those of randomly matched people through smell . They found that the odor similarity between friends was greater than that of strangers .

Besides , Volunteers were also asked to rate happiness 、 Sexual attraction 、 Enthusiasm and other personalities are important to those from friends 40 Score based on body odor . When the researchers combined all the scores, they found , The smell between friends is more similar than that between randomly matched people .

After this , The team also wanted to test whether the smell similarity between strangers could be used to predict whether they would meet for the first time “ Hit it off ”. So , They recruited some strangers who had never met each other , Let them play silently “ Mirror game ”, That is, participants are paired , Without making a sound for two minutes , Closely imitate each other's hand movements .

The researchers conducted the experiment in the form of a round robin , In the production of 66 In different pairs , One third of the paired pairs said they liked each other , Get on well with each other . Electronic nose test found , The odor chemical molecules of these people show a high degree of similarity , And those who have no feelings for each other will not have this phenomenon . Experiments show that , They predicted whether the two would be able to keep pace with each other with an accuracy of 71%.