Deodorant Makes Dudes Seem More Masculine, Study Finds

A study finds that armpit scent plays a pretty big role in perceived masculinity.

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Men who are interested in appearing more masculine to women may only need to slather the deodorant on extra thick in the morning. A new study has found that the smell of deodorant on a man makes him seem more masculine to women. 

The study was published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior by researchers from the University of Stirling in the United Kingdom. The study asked a group of 130 men and women to rate how masculine or feminine people of the opposite sex appeared. Another group of 239 men and women were asked to sniff 40 people of the opposite sex. In the latter group, the study participants rated how masculine or feminine those 40 people seemed after getting a good whiff of their body odor.

Once all the armpits were sniffed and the data was collected, the researchers found that men who had lower masculinity rankings based on facial analysis were perceived as manlier if they were wearing deodorant. However, men who were already seen as masculine based on their faces alone did not get a boost by applying deodorant.

Across the board, men in the study found women to be more feminine when they were wearing deodorant versus not wearing any. The study also found that women seem to be more sensitive to smell than their male counterparts.

What does all of this amount to? Lead author for the study, Caroline Allen, who is a psychology researcher with the University of Sterling, said that deodorant can perhaps be thought of as a game-changer for men who are yearning for some extra sense (scent?) of masculinity. "This means that men are able to use deodorant to artificially raise their game so to speak, leveling the playing field by making themselves comparable, at least as far as odor is concerned, to more masculine men," Allen said in a press release about the new research.

Dr. Allen noted in an email to Complex that the study did not look at levels of attractiveness, just masculinity. However, she added that generally in studies on the relationship between attractiveness and masculinity, moderate levels of masculinity are usually considered attractive.

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