Pleasant body odours, but not genetic similarity, influence trustworthiness in a modified trust game.

ABSTRACT: Identifying trustworthy partners is an important adaptive challenge for establishing mutually cooperative relationships. Previous studies have demonstrated a marked relationship between a person's attractiveness and his apparent trustworthiness (beauty premium). Kin selection theory, however, suggests that cues to kinship enhance trustworthiness. Here we directly tested predictions of the beauty premium and kin selection theory by using body odours as cues to trustworthiness. Body odours reportedly portray information about an individuals' genotype at the human leucocyte antigen system (HLA) and thus olfactory cues in body odours serve as a promising means for kin recognition. Ninety men played trust games in which they divided uneven sums of monetary units between two male trustees repres

SUBMITTER: Lobmaier JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7042344 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature