A putative female pheromone affects mood in men differently depending on social context

Pheromones play a significant role in social interaction and communication in many vertebrates and invertebrates. Although a well-established phenomenon in the animal world, the existence of human pheromones is controversial. The most common observation supporting the notion of pheromones in humans is that exposure to putative pheromones can influence mood in participants. Recently, the concept of modulatory pheromones has been introduced, suggesting that effects of pheromone exposure in humans depend on the context. In the current experiment, we tested whether the mood of heterosexual men is affected by exposure of a putative female pheromone, estratetraenol. We also investigated if this influence would differ depending on whether a male or a female heterosexual experimenter was interacting with the participants. ANOVAs were performed on aggregated mood scales resulting from factor analysis. The results were that exposure to estratetraenol compared to a perceptually identical control substance enhanced positive mood. Moreover, negative mood was differently affected depending on whether a male or a female experimenter conducted the test. Altogether this study suggests that a putative female pheromone can modulate mood in men. Interestingly, the social context (male or female experimenter) seems to be of importance for how men react to exposure. (c) 2006 Elsevier Masson SAS. Tous droits reserves.