Emily Chan
Moms often get the well-deserved superhero title, as they should. They juggle countless responsibilities with great fortitude and grace.
But dads have their own superpowers, too! It turns out that dads have a hidden ability to pick up on their kids’ unique scent profiles.
According to a new study from Germany, fathers can identify the body odor of their own children from the odors of other prepubescent children.
In addition, their ability and preference to detect their children’s body odor declined as the children entered puberty. The change was particularly noted in daughters.
When it comes to human relationships, body odors provide information about a person’s health, genetic compatibility, hormonal status, emotional state, attractiveness, and trustworthiness. Pleasant odors can lead to bonding, while unpleasant odors cause aversion.
In parent-child interactions, body odors help parents recognize their offspring. But as a child gets older, the parents’ perceptions of their body odor changes. For instance, mothers could recognize the smell of their children before puberty.
But once the children reached puberty, mothers could no longer recognize or prefer their body odor. After puberty, mothers perceived the body odors of their children to be pleasant. The phenomenon applied to sons but not daughters.
The researchers of the new study wanted to see if fathers could also identify their children’s body odor at different developmental stages.
They believed that fathers would follow much of the same patterns as mothers, except their reduction in recognition and preference of their children’s scent would apply to daughters, not sons.
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