The compatibility of political ideas helps us find a partner... through smell.

A curious study claims that political ideology helps us to match through smell.

Not everything in politics responds to rational principles. Curiously, in ideology there is also a hormonal aspect that affects our most personal relationships.

Smell, political ideology and sexual attraction? an impossible cocktail?

At least, this seems to be the conclusion of research published in the American Journal of Political Sciencewhich suggests that people are more attracted to the smell of people whose political ideology is similar to their own.. In other words: not only are we able to discriminate between "conservative" and "progressive" smells, but we also use this criterion, to a lesser or greater extent, to find a stable partner.

Research

To reach this conclusion, the researchers used a sample of 146 people between the ages of 18 and 40 who indicated their political positioning on a numbered scale ranging from "strongly progressive" to "strongly conservative". From these data, 21 people with extreme odors in one direction or the other were chosen. After bathing with odorless soaps and shampoos, these people spent 24 hours with gauze glued to their armpits. During this time they were not allowed to smoke, drink, use deodorants, have sex or sleep with another person or animal in bed.

The resulting samples were frozen and stored until one week later, at which time 125 people proceeded to smell each of the samples in random order. In each case, they rated the attractiveness of these odors out of five points.. In addition, these people and those who spent 24 hours with the gauze never saw each other.

Results

The results are surprising: there is a clear pattern of recognition and better valuation of the smells of those whose political positioning is similar to one's ownThe results are surprising: there is a clear pattern of recognition and better valuation of the smells of those whose political positioning is similar to one's own, compared to those with an opposite positioning.

Once the data have been presented, it is the turn of interpretation. One hypothesis put forward by evolutionary psychology is that stable couples with similar ideologies tend to create a more stable family context that favors the breeding of offspring, and so on. Therefore, the researchers point out, it is not unusual for political leanings to be one of the traits most stable couples have in common. Beneath the seemingly simple idea of political compatibility may lie a number of processes that affect not only our social sphere, but even the sexual and breeding plane.

The similarity in ideology and values within a family can be of great help (or avoid many problems) when it comes to maintaining and (or avoid many problems) when it comes to maintaining and effectively educating children until they become adults. The perception of other people's smells would be, then, not only one of the mechanisms that reinforce this adaptation mechanism, but also a process that has its target in our most emotional and subjective level.

Smell communicates

This would be one more proof of to what extent smell can provide information about the sender and be a method of social communication, although at a more emotional and subjective level.This would be one more proof of the extent to which smell can provide information about the sender and be a method of social communication, albeit at a rather unconscious level. It may be that the choice of a partner is an experience even less rational than we think.