Scientists from the Technical University of Dresden have discovered that fathers are able to recognize their child by smell. At the same time, the ability to “smell” one’s own children varies depending on their age and gender. The study results were published in the journal Physiology & Behavior.
The study included 56 fathers and 73 of their biological children. The average age of men was 39 years, and children – from several months to 18 years. The latter were distributed by age groups – the first included participants from zero to three years old, the second – from four to eight years old, the third – from nine to thirteen years old, and the fourth – from fourteen to eighteen years old.
The research took place in several stages. First, fathers and children visited the laboratory, where they filled out questionnaires and took tests aimed at assessing olfactory abilities. All participants also had oral swabs taken to analyze human leukocyte antigens (HLA), proteins that are found in most cells and play a key role in immune responses, affecting the composition of sweat and body odor.
Parents were then provided with special study kits. With their help, they collected samples of the children's body odor and saliva to analyze hormone levels. The next day, all samples were handed over to the researchers.
In the final, fathers took a series of tests in which they rated smells based on the criteria of pleasantness, intensity and desirability, and also tried to identify the smells of their children. The results showed that participants gave correct answers 33% of the time—twice as often as originally expected. Fathers were somewhat worse at identifying the smell of their children in early puberty (from nine to thirteen years). But with children under three years old, the share of correct answers reached 37.5%.
