It is true. The people with the highest body odor are caucasians and blacks. The reason why is for some reason they excrete more fatty molecules in their sweat which gives their bacteria a bigger growth boost and hence more odor. The asian and north americans produce less fat molecules and different cultures also sweat in different ways. The furthest north North American natives sweat less from their body then any other races but more from their forehead and scalp which causes faster cooling in an arctic environment and less risk of wet clothing. The blacks and causasicans also grow more body hair then the other races which probably also contributes a lot to the odor.

Asians have fewer sweat glands and probably maintain different balances of flora in the jungles and on the deserts of their bodies. In four years in Japan, I never encountered a "body" odor, even in the humid summers in packed trains. Men's bathrooms, though, are very different in that what I presume to be the high intake of fish seems to come out quite noticeably in urine smell. Almost intolerable to my western nose... although poop seems to smell like sch1t wherever you go. As this science matures, I suspect there will be many surprises as to the extent our lives are ruled by this most basic of all senses, chemoception. Even bacteria do it. I doubt that we are the only animal on the planet for which it is not a profound behavioral modifier. There is little else, for example, that can with just a few molecules bring back a memory with the strength that smell can, not to mention turn us into mobile fat suits... And for you sad sacks and know nothings, you would quickly die a horrible and painful death if you were not covered from head to foot, inside and out, with germs, which sticky little organisms we exchange with each other constantly, incessently, everything we touch, the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, all teeming with life. In fact, your very constituative cells, themselves, are composed of several commensal microbial partners. Get used to it. This research is more important than you can possibly imagine. Your 'smell' determines YOUR place in the human circus much more than you will ever realize. And noses can easily pick these critical signal molecules out of the 'noise', the dupont chemicals you apply to yourself for instance, such as Axe (?), and there is no way to hide or disguise your true biological worth to those noses around you. Sorry. Corporate would have you think otherwise, of course, but for corporate, the stupider their customers can be made, the better for them. Take a GOOD course in microbiology and the world will look very different to you...

Ah, justvisiting-1857005 and I posted about the same time and his/her post reminded me that, for the Japanese at least, we albinoids smell like 'meat', quite strongly like meat, in fact. We probably also smell like our particular immune identity which, if we are like other mammals, determines who we may and who probably we won't mate with. 'Smell' is still a very young and already highly complex field of study. Geowil below also makes some excellent points some of which I have experienced directly myself (!). And yes, Geowil, the personality (us) is just the subunit of the cerebral system that manages appropriate contextual social and defensive behavior and, of course, must therefore monitor internal and external conditions constantly, hence 'awareness', a to-be-expected feature of our obligate communal group structure. Ah, so much to know and such small brains with which to know it. Alas...

People can smell your neuroticism

If there's a headline more likely to freak out a neurotic, I sure don't know what it would be.

LOL @ PDK.

Maybe it's a conspiratorial part of the test itself? The researchers coming to the houses of various neurotics reading the headline to steal their shirts?

They should also check the odors of heavy gamblers too, especially after they "lose their shirts".

@just visiting

That is pretty fascinating. I'm not trying to question you, but do you have any links for reference?

No doubt I will get slammed for saying this, but having been trained in Biology it always seemed like a no brainer to me that genetics plays a large role in who we are.

It isn't just about "skin color". We know darn well that if you painted an African, a Caucasion, an Indian, an Asian, and a Native American the same color it would still be pretty obvious what race they were.

We can accept that different breeds of dogs have different intelligence traits. A Border Collie is different from a Bassett Hound is different from a Labrador Retriever. They each have strengths and weaknesses that they were born with, and no amount of training will change it.

Our reluctance to accept simple truths in the name of being politically correct doesn't do anyone any favors.

The only sane approach is to foster the strengths that people are born with rather than trying to turn them into what "we" want them to be.

I am sure this came from the security part of the Gov. you know to detect evil.

Maybe that is why extremely expensive perfumes are marketed..to cover the stench of ones neurosis??

Frankie: Read the freaking article! The study was done at a Polish University, for cryin' out loud! It didn't cost the US govt one red cent. Are you just totally stupid??

Now watch this comment start a blight of Polish jokes!

If you do not think that pheromones have any sway over what we do you have not been through a proper biology class. They body releases pheromones during all kinds of situations. The whole reason why you have the stigma during high school that most teenagers are going to get "some" is not all directly related to hormones and the saying "out of his/her mind with hormones" is actually a bit of a misnomer.

When women are seeking a mate their bodies release a certain pheromone that potential mates can pick up on through smell. Men's body oder also has a similar effect on women, making them a bit less inhibited. During sex the body releases a different kind of pheromone that causes the senses to sharpen.

We even release a pheromone when we are frightened. You know the saying "I can smell your fear"? Well that is not far off from the truth. If we had any natural predators they would be able to pick up on that scent and it is also one of the scents that dogs can track us by.

The nose does much more then you would think and we cannot consiously detect some of the oders that it can detect, but the brain can analyze them.

Much of what our body does is done without our knowledge, we are only in direct control of about 20% to 30% of our brains at any one time and the rest is working on its own, without our help. That is why we are able to judge distances, predict how far we need to go, or pick things up or throw things; the brain makes all of these complex calculations, on the level of trigonometry, on its own without us knowing it.

By the way, some of the time dreams are just the mind's way of processing information that you were unable to understand while awake. True at other times it is gibberish though, but many people throughout history have been able to come to a breakthrough in their fields or realization via lucid dreaming.

nativesocal.... Tell me your dreams...

OMG Geowil...a rational person suffering from intellectual curiosity, which is sorely lacking here.

Thank you for your post.

The singer himself will soon have 'stinky feet' as well, if not already. These organisms are highly communicable and difficult to get rid of once they get comfortable in a new dermal home. A complete soak in brown Listerine at least to the ankle for as long as standable up to about 5 min - 10 minutes, well dried with a bleach washed fresh towel (or airdried), fresh bleach washed socks, and open sandals, (a proprietary foot powder may also be added) repeated for about 5 days (fresh Listerine) with all old shoes and unbleachable socks discarded and new shoes only at the end. Everybody in the house should do this at the same time and all floors, showers, and bathtubs well cleaned (with well diluted bleach solution if possible) and no 'bare feet' for a month or two, at least. And certainly don't be rubbing the 'stinky feet' with your bare hands. Feet are not the only location these guys can live. I suspect you would not want 'stinky nose' for example. Good luck...

How very conceited of you.

flyyoyo, your similarity to the intellectual traits of a chunk of wood are truly impressive. Don't change a thing!

I wonder how much grant money got sucked up in that study.

Did you even read the article? The study was done in POLAND! That's over here in Europe, you know, that part of the world that's NOT in the USA? There is a world outside of our borders in case you didn't know.

And this is why I'm glad an uneducated person such as yourself is not in charge of making funding decisions. Go ahead, continue to spout of your ignorance and denounce all research that doesn't seem to have an immediate implication for you. It's attitudes like yours that place us on the road to Idiocracy (a film).

cat whisperer its people like you who waste my hard earned tax dollars. If you want to waste time picking on what you call the unintelligent, i've got something you can study.