A new study published in Evolution and Human Behavior provides evidence that human body odor may act as a subtle cue for social status. The research suggests that men with higher levels of testosterone produce a scent that others perceive as more dominant. These findings indicate that chemical signaling may play a role in how humans assess social hierarchies, operating largely outside of conscious awareness.
Social hierarchies are a fundamental aspect of human group living. To navigate these complex social structures, individuals must assess the standing of those around them. Evolutionary psychologists generally categorize social status into two distinct strategies. The first is dominance, which relies on intimidation, force, or coercion to secure resources and compliance.
The second strategy is prestige. Prestige is granted freely by others to individuals who demonstrate valuable skills, knowledge, or wisdom. While both strategies lead to high social rank, they are communicated through different behaviors. Dominance is often associated with aggressive posturing and lower vocal pitch. Prestige is linked to confidence and social connection.
Humans are adept at reading visual and vocal cues to judge these traits. An expansive posture or a deep voice often signals high status. However, animals across the biological spectrum also rely heavily on chemical communication. From insects to mammals, organisms use scent to mark territory, find mates, and signal fighting ability.
Dominance signaling via scent is well-documented in other species. For example, dominant male rodents mark their territory with urine to advertise their competitive strength. Other males typically avoid these areas to prevent costly physical conflicts. The authors of the current study sought to determine if a similar biological mechanism exists in humans.
Testosterone is a hormone frequently associated with status-seeking behavior in men. It is linked to aggression and the drive to achieve social power. Biologically, testosterone also influences physiological processes that create body odor. It affects the apocrine sweat glands and the production of sebum, an oily substance on the skin.
Because testosterone drives both status-seeking behavior and the production of body odor, the researchers hypothesized that the two might be linked. They proposed that men with higher testosterone would produce a smell that others interpret as indicative of high social status. Specifically, they looked at whether this scent would signal dominance or prestige.
“The human sense of smell is still not well understood, and people generally don’t recognize how much information we gather through our noses, or how impactful it can be to lose this sense,” said study author Marlise Hofer, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Victoria.
“Our motivation came from two converging observations. First, research is beginning to reveal that human odor cues carry a wide range of social information (e.g., emotional states, health, kinship), and we wanted to know whether this extends to perceptions of social status or dominance.”
“Second, prior work suggests that hormones such as testosterone play a role in status-related behaviors (competitiveness, dominance), so we wanted to examine whether testosterone levels, or scent cues associated with testosterone, might be involved in providing subtle olfactory information shaping perceptions of social status. In doing so, we bridge biological endocrinology, chemical communication, and social status perception, domains that all matter for understanding how people navigate hierarchies, competition, and social connection.”
The researchers recruited 74 male participants to serve as scent donors. These men had an average age of approximately 22 years. To ensure the scents were not contaminated by outside factors, the donors followed a strict hygiene protocol.
For 24 hours, the donors avoided activities that could alter their natural smell. They were instructed not to smoke, drink alcohol, or eat strong-smelling foods like garlic or onions. They also refrained from using scented soaps, deodorants, or colognes. The researchers provided them with fragrance-free soap and shampoo for showering.
During this 24-hour period, each donor wore a clean, white cotton t-shirt. This allowed their natural body odor to accumulate on the fabric. The donors also visited the laboratory to provide saliva samples. These samples were analyzed to measure their circulating levels of testosterone.
After the shirts were collected, they were frozen to preserve the odors. The second phase of the study involved a large group of independent raters. The researchers recruited 797 participants to act as “smellers.” This group included both men and women.
The smellers were presented with the worn t-shirts, as well as unworn control shirts. They were not told who wore the shirts or provided with any information about the donors. For each shirt, the rater inhaled the scent and completed a questionnaire.
The questionnaire asked the smellers to rate the odor on several dimensions. They assessed the intensity of the smell and how pleasant or sexy it was. They also rated their perception of the wearer’s personality traits. Specifically, they rated how dominant and prestigious they imagined the wearer to be.
The items used to assess dominance focused on aggressive control. For example, raters considered whether the wearer seemed like someone who “enjoys having control over others.” The prestige items focused on respect, such as whether the wearer seemed “held in high esteem by others.”
The researchers analyzed the data using multilevel modeling. This statistical approach allowed them to account for the fact that each shirt was rated by multiple people. The analysis revealed a positive association between testosterone and perceived dominance.
Men who had higher levels of testosterone produced sweat that raters perceived as coming from a more dominant individual. This relationship held true even after the researchers controlled for the intensity of the smell. In other words, while high-testosterone sweat was stronger, the perception of dominance was not solely due to the strength of the odor.
The researchers also found that testosterone levels were positively correlated with scent intensity. Men with more testosterone simply smelled stronger. However, there was no significant relationship between testosterone and how pleasant the smell was. The hormonal signal appeared to convey information about power rather than attractiveness.
The findings regarding prestige were distinct from those regarding dominance. The researchers found no association between a donor’s testosterone levels and how prestigious they were perceived to be. This aligns with evolutionary theory suggesting that dominance is a more primal strategy rooted in physical aggression. Prestige, being a more culturally dependent trait, may not be signaled as directly through biological markers like testosterone.
The researchers also examined the donors’ self-views. The men completed surveys rating their own levels of dominance and prestige. The analysis showed no correlation between a man’s self-rated dominance and his testosterone levels. Furthermore, a man’s self-view did not predict how others rated his scent. This suggests that while testosterone influences body odor in a way that signals dominance to others, this signal operates independently of how a man sees himself.
Together, the findings provide evidence that “humans can detect and respond to subtle differences in body odor, and those differences can influence how dominant someone is perceived to be,” Hofer told PsyPost. “Scent is one more input into how we understand and respond to others, and because odor perception often operates outside conscious awareness, it’s an important but understudied part of social interaction.”
But it is important to note that “the effects were small. This doesn’t mean people can clearly ‘smell status,’ but rather that scent contributes one subtle cue among many. It’s an incremental insight: the effect is real but limited, and in everyday interactions context and other sensory or social cues likely play a much larger role.”
The researchers also noted that the sex of the smeller did not affect the results. Both male and female raters perceived the scents of high-testosterone men as more dominant.
“All our odor samples were from male donors, but our raters included both males and females,” Hofer said. “We were surprised that the effect of testosterone did not differ based on rater sex. Females typically have a stronger olfactory ability, so we initially expected they might show stronger effects. We also thought ratings might differ due to differing evolutionary goals related to mating or competition. However, there was no moderation by sex, suggesting that testosterone’s influence on odor perception was consistent across males and females.”
As with all research, there are limitations to consider. First, the sample size of 74 scent donors is relatively small for this type of research. While the number of raters was large, the number of unique scent profiles was limited. Replicating the study with a larger group of donors would help confirm the reliability of the association.
The study also focused on a single hormone measured at a single point in time. Testosterone levels can fluctuate throughout the day. A more comprehensive approach would involve measuring testosterone over several days to get a baseline average. Additionally, other hormones like cortisol likely play a role in social signaling.
Future research could investigate the interaction between testosterone and cortisol. Previous work suggests the ratio of these two hormones is a better predictor of aggressive behavior than testosterone alone. It is possible that the “scent of dominance” is most potent in men with high testosterone and low cortisol.
The biological mechanism behind this phenomenon also requires further study. Testosterone is known to stimulate hair growth and sebum production. It is possible that the perceived dominance is driven by these secondary factors rather than the sweat itself. For instance, more underarm hair provides more surface area for bacteria, potentially intensifying the odor.
Determining the exact biological roots of these signals remains a task for future science, but the results suggest that body odor provides a stream of social data. Hofer explained that she is now turning her attention to the consequences of being cut off from that information:
“Since COVID-19, many people have temporarily or permanently lost their sense of smell, and I am increasingly focusing on the consequences of losing this important source of social and environmental information,” Hofer said. “I would like to better understand these impacts and develop ways to support people living with olfactory dysfunction.”
The study, “The role of testosterone in odor-based perceptions of social status,” was authored by Marlise K. Hofer, Tianqi Peng, Jennifer C. Lay, and Frances S. Chen.
