Here's the bizarre effect a man's scent can have on women

If you've lived in the 21st century, chances are you've heard about the power of pheromones. This roughly translates to the fact that humans are capable of emitting sex signals. Yes, your personal musk is powerful enough to draw people to you - even those who otherwise would not find you physically attractive. In fact, your personal mix of hormones and chemicals is absolutely irresistible to some people. And, of course, this works conversely too. It's like everyone's body has a natural Axe Body Spray. Researchers from the Department of Psychology at the University of South Florida have been studying the effects of these scents. In their first investigation, they focused on the scents emitted by women. They discovered that when women were at the fertile phase of their menstrual cycle, their scents prompted men to drink more alcohol. (So, in some cases, perhaps the ladies should buy the guys a drink at the bar! Just ask her about her cycle first.) In their new study, researchers investigated the effects of scents emitted by men. They gathered 103 women between the ages of 21 and 31, and made them each live in a cramped college frat house for a month. Just kidding. Actually, the researchers told the women they were taking a consumer survey for men's cologne and beer. (Liars!) Then they gave the participants fragrance strips which were either sprayed with water or androstenone, "a pheromone found in boar’s saliva." (Yum! By the way, "Boar's Saliva" would be a great name for a cologne.) Finally, the women were each given two 12 ounce glasses of non-alcoholic beer. Over a ten minute period, the women exposed to androstenone drank one tenth a 12-ounce glass of beer more than the women exposed to water. So, the results were similar to the previous investigation. Scents from men cause women to drink more alcohol, and scents from women cause men to drink more alcohol. (I guess we should take turns buying each other drinks.) However, the association between pheromones and drinking isn't just chemical. "We inferred that detection of male sexual scents, even in the absence of awareness, may instigate drinking because of the longstanding cultural association between alcohol use and sex," wrote the researchers in their report. The researchers admit the results from their experiments might not reflect real life situations. (I mean, the participants weren't even given real alcohol.) However, scents emitted from men and women clearly have an influence on how much alcohol is consumed. So, if you're at the bar, and you're drinking a few more beers than usual, it might be because you find somebody else's musk irresistible. (Or you might just be standing close to a boar. Apparently, there's a lot of pheromones in their saliva.) In another sign the genders aren't so different after all, the medical journal BMJ Open analyzed men and women's drinking habits. At the beginning of the 1900's, men drank twice as much as women. However, by the 1980's, men only only drank 1.1 times as much as women. Congratulations, ladies. In a few more decades, we'll all be equally sad alcoholics!