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IFLScience We Have Questions: Do Humans Have Pheromones?

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clock-iconPUBLISHEDAugust 25, 2025
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IFLScience We Have Questions: Do Humans Have Pheromones?

And why the nipple might be our best bet.

Rachael Funnell headshot

Rachael Funnell

Rachael Funnell headshot

Rachael Funnell

Senior Science Writer

Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, and specializes in animal behavior, evolution, palaeontology, and the environment.

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BookRead IFLScience Editorial Policy

Senior Science Writer

Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, and specializes in animal behavior, evolution, palaeontology, and the environment.View full profile

Rachael has a degree in Zoology from the University of Southampton, and specializes in animal behavior, evolution, palaeontology, and the environment.

View full profile
Episode 12 of We Have Questions playing on a smartphone, in the background is an image of a man wincing at the smell of his armpit and on the opposite side is an image of a woman sniffing the air

Episode 12 of We Have Questions.

Image credit: gmstockstudio/IZAZ CREATES/klyaksun/Konstantin Chagin/Shutterstock.com; modified by IFLScience

Humans smell, there’s no denying it, but are some of those smells sending out chemical signals we aren’t consciously aware of? Are we, like ants, giving off pheromones? 

The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

We spoke to Dr Tristram Wyatt, Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford, to find out.

You can listen to this episode and subscribe to the podcast on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, Amazon Music, and more.

This interview first appeared in Issue 31 of our digital magazine CURIOUS.

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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHEDAugust 25, 2025

Written by Rachael Funnell

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