Conditioning of the human pair bond by human pheromones

By: James V. Kohl | Published on: November 3, 2010

Few people seem to realize the importance of human pheromones to their relationship behavior. The pair bonding that is typically associated with oxytocin by others is first and foremost influenced by pheromones. Oddly, this was suggested more than a decade before Harold Persky included the following paragraph in his book (cited below).  As others begin to understand the chemistry of copulins, human pheromone research may progress from marketing claims to scientific facts–as quoted here.

“What is the significance of this periodic fluctuation in the male’s T [testosterone]? Several possibilities can be suggested: (1) the husband’s testosterone level has become entrained to the wife’s menstrual cycle reflecting the pair bonding of the two partners, or (2) a form of communication exists between the two partners whereby the female informs the male that she has ovulated and he responds, like the dominant rhesus monkey, with an increase in his testosterone level facilitating his entire sexual response cycle. These two hypotheses are not necessarily antithetical; in fact, they may be highly compatible in that the first possibility provides a mechanism to reenforce the couple’s pair bonding, and the second reenforces the couple’s reproductive capacity.” – p. 108
Persky, H. (1987) Psychoendocrinology of Human Sexual Behavior. New York: Praeger.



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