Wedekind (1995)

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

To determine whether one’s Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) would affect mate choice.

Question 2

Participants

Answer 2

• 49 female and 44 male students
• Each was “typed” for their MHC, and a wide variance of MHC was included in the sample
• Noted if the women were taking oral contraceptives
• Students probably did not know each other as they were from different courses: women from biology and psychology; men from chemistry, physics, and geography

Question 3

Method

Answer 3

• Men were asked to wear a T-shirt for two nights and to keep the T-shirt in an open plastic bag during the day.
• Given perfume-free detergent to wash clothes and bedclothes and perfume-free soap for showering.
• Asked not to use any deodorants or perfumes, to refrain from smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol, to avoid all spicy foods and to not engage in any sexual activity.
• Two days later, the women were asked to rank the smell of 7 t-shirts, each in a cardboard box with a “smelling hole.”
• Women were tested whenever possible in the second week after the beginning of menstruation, as women appear to be most odour-sensitive at this time.
• Women were asked to prepare themselves for the experiment by using a nose spray for the 14 days before the experiment to support regeneration of the nasal mucous membrane if necessary – as well as a preventive measure against colds or flu.
• Three of the seven boxes contained T-shirts from men with MHC similar to the woman’s own;
• Three contained T-shirts from MHC dissimilar men
• One contained an unworn T-shirt as a control
• Alone in a room, every woman scored the odors of the T-shirts for intensity (range 0-10) and for pleasantness and sexiness (range 0 -10, 5 = neutral).

Question 4

Results

Answer 4

• Women scored male body odours as more pleasant when they differed from their own MHC than when they were more similar.
• This difference in odour assessment was reversed when the women rating the odours were taking oral contraceptives.

Question 5

Conclusion

Answer 5

• This suggests that the MHC may influence human mate choice.

Question 6

Strengths

Answer 6

• Supports the evolutionary argument for mate selection in humans.
• Successfully replicated by Jacob et al (2002).
  Yamazaki et al. (1976) showed this to be the case for male mice, which show a preference for females of different MHC.
• Research shows that couples who suffer from repeated miscarriages often share a higher proportion of their MHC
• Newborn babies of such couples often have a reduced birth mass (Reznikoff-Etievant etal. 1991).
• Double blind

Question 7

Limitations

Answer 7

• Reductionist arguement

* Sample may not be considered representative as the participants were similar in age and culture