We are naturally drawn to the body odor of people with an immune system different from our own, which is said to subconsciously influence our choice of partner.

noli's read

This claim is based on the famous experimental study by Claus Wedekind (1995), often called the 'sweaty t-shirt experiment,' which revealed that women preferred the scent of t-shirts worn by men with major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes different from their own. This observation suggests a biological attraction mechanism that favors offspring with a more robust immune system. However, attempts to generalize this effect outside the laboratory remain highly inconsistent. A meta-analysis by Winternitz et al. (2017) shows that while this olfactory preference is real, its concrete influence on the final choice of a life partner is minimal when weighed against social factors or the use of hormonal contraceptives, which can alter odor perception. Furthermore, a large observational study by Chaix et al. (2008) on actual couples did not find significant immune genetic differences between spouses. The idea of an olfactory compass for immune compatibility is therefore fascinating, but it is only one piece of a much larger relationship puzzle.

the sources

No named source held this one up — that absence is part of the verdict.