This crazy feature is something everyone has in common with their friends

Almost everyone knows this: those friends with whom you immediately felt a connection. You both really have no idea why you got along so well right away, but it happened anyway. I also have such a friend and always explained our rapidly developing friendship in terms of our shared interests and humor. However, research shows that we don't actually choose our friends based on those aspects, but on something entirely different: having the same body odor. I wish I had come up with the next term myself because I think it's brilliant, but ‘friends at first sniff‘ is indeed a real thing.

Researchers at the Institute of Science in Israel noted that animals have been sniffing themselves and each other for centuries to see if they like each other. In humans, this manifests in the fact that we choose our friends based on similarities, so the researchers wondered if we humans might also unconsciously form friendships based on body odor.

To test this, the researchers collected the worn T-shirts of 20 friendship pairs who indicated that they experienced ‘friendship at first sight’ upon meeting. These shirts were collected and tested with an electronic nose: a device that can analyze chemical compositions. It turned out that the body odors of good friends matched much more than the body odors of people who were not friends.

They also investigated whether people who spend a lot of time together automatically start to smell more like each other because they often share the same living conditions. In that case, friendship would not so much be related to scent, but more to a combination of shared experiences. This was tested through a test called the ‘Mirror Game’, where strangers, who had nothing in common, were asked to mimic each other's hand movements without talking while standing half a meter apart (so they could unconsciously smell each other). What turned out? People with the same chemical composition in their body odor actually found each other more likable.

Well, that seems clear to me: we unconsciously choose our friends based on body odor. Good to remember for the next time you notice that your girlfriend needs a deodorant during a night out, because that probably applies to you as well. Handy, such a sixth sense!

Source: phys.org | Image: Romee Strijd Negin Mirsalehi Youtube vlog