You may want to follow your nose when seeking new friends

• You may want to follow your nose when seeking new friends.
• Research published in Scientific Reports suggests that our noses' sensory cues guide our decision to befriend someone.
• 40 females took part in a "speed-friending" experiment. They had their picture taken and were given a plain, white T-shirt to wear for 12 hours while maintaining their usual hygiene routine.
• After briefly seeing their photo, the women were asked to rate the other women's friendship potential. They were then asked to smell and rate the scent of each shirt of the other women they would later meet in four-minute increments.
• After smelling and rating the t-shirts again, the study revealed that participants would significantly reevaluate how much they enjoyed meeting each woman. The cues that their noses received independently evaluated the women's likability.
• The study's author explained, "People take a lot in when meeting face to face. But scent, which people are registering at some level, though probably not consciously, forecasts whether you like this person."

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