Love Is in the Air? A Critical Assessment to Determine Whether Odour Studies Can Be Used to Interpret Human Mate Choice Reliably from an Evolutionary Perspective

Evolutionary psychology provides a framework to study human behaviours such as mate choice, the phenotypes and behaviours that encourage non-random mating, from a Darwinian perspective. Mate choice research has the potential to improve or degrade institutional, social and personal relationships, especially under current circumstances. Using the effect of female odour on males in determining mate choice behaviours as a case study, this literature review assesses the methodology and reliability of evolutionary interpretations of human mate choice behaviour. Three main approaches were examined: comparative biology, empirical questionnaires, and theory-driven deduction. The odour case studies of these approaches show the potential of interpreting human behaviour from a Darwinian perspective. However, they also show the many limitations and lack of variable consideration of evolutionary psychology research to interpret human behaviours reliably. Most research does not take ecological, cultural or individualistic variables into account when forming conclusions or designing experiments. Hence, this literature review suggests that future human-centric studies revise questionnaires under more modern rubrics and combines them with odour tests that take cultural niches and modern ecology into account. More robust interpretations of human behaviour are needed and must be communicated to prevent the misuse of evolutionary theory.