Smelling human sex hormone-like compounds affects face gender judgment of men

Citation

Kovacs G, Gulyas B, Savic I, Perrett DI, Cornwell RE, Little A, Jones BC, Burt DM, Gal V & Vidnyanszky Z (2004) Smelling human sex hormone-like compounds affects face gender judgment of men. NeuroReport, 15 (8), pp. 1275-1277. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.wnr.0000130234.51411.0e

Abstract
Although strong cross-sensory interactions between visual, tactile and auditory modalities have already been shown, we know little about how chemosensory information affects processing in other sensory modalities. We studied whether smelling gender-specific odorous sex hormone-like steroids: 5-[alpha]-androgenst-16-en-3-one (androgen) or oestra-1, 3, 5 (10), 16-tetraen-3-ol (estrogen) can bias face gender discrimination. We found that, as a result of inhalation of androgen, men perceive faces to be more masculine as compared to when they are exposed to estrogen. Our results provide evidence for specific cross-sensory effects of the gender-specific chemosensory cues on the categorization of visual face gender.

Keywords
cross-modal interaction; face gender discrimination; pheromones

Journal
NeuroReport: Volume 15, Issue 8