Single men are SMELLIER than those in relationships, study claims

Single men tend to have stronger body odor than their coupled counterparts, according to a new study.

And, it may actually work in their favor.

Building off of prior research that found single men have higher testosterone levels, researchers recruited men to work up a sweat, and had women then sniff the armpit of their T-shirts to see if there were detectable differences in smell.

Not only did single men have a stronger body odor, but the study found women also rated their faces as more masculine than the men who were in relationships.

In the new study published to the journal Frontiers in Psychology, researchers from Macquarie University set out to determine if single and partnered men smell different based on their differing testosterone levels.

To do this, they had 82 heterosexual women rate the body odor and faces of men between the ages of 18 and 35.

Men were first tasked to work up a sweat. 

Then the armpit section of their T-shirt was cut out and given to the women to smell and rate.

The study found women often rated the smell of partnered men around a 3 out of 6 on the smelliness scale.

Single men, on the other hand, came in at an average 3.5.

Similarly, the women rated single men’s faces as appearing more masculine than the men who were in relationships.

‘Consistent with the hypothesis, single men’s BO smelled stronger than partnered men’s BO and single men’s faces were rated as more masculine than partnered men’s faces,’ the researchers write in the paper.

In addition to testosterone levels, the researchers say non-hormonal lifestyle differences likely come into play as well.

The study isn’t the first to examine the possible link between testosterone levels and body odor.

A separate study published in 2013 found that women tend to be more attracted to men who have higher testosterone levels – but only when they’re ovulating.