Abstract
A vast body of research has shown that women tend to outperform men in various olfactory abilities. Further, homosexuals often exhibit gender atypical traits, as might well be the case with olfaction.
We hypothesised that both in men and women sexual orientation would be correlated with olfactory scores and odour awareness but it would go in the opposite direction in women. The Sniffin' Sticks test was used to assess the olfactory threshold, discrimination and identification (TDI) of 40 homosexuals (F=20) and 40 heterosexuals (F=20) aged 20-35.
Further, self report Gender Nonconformity Scale (GN) and Odour Awareness Scale (OAS) were administered. A GLM analysis was performed, which yielded a significant sex difference and sex*sexual orientation interaction.
Post-hoc tests revealed that this was due to a difference in the olfactory threshold, with heterosexual men being less sensitive than heterosexual women (p= .017); in the TDI, with heterosexual men scoring less than both homosexual men (p=.009) and heterosexual women (p= .016) and, finally, in the OAS score, with heterosexual men scoring less than heterosexual women (p= .038). Furthermore, it was found that the self-reported sexual orientation correlated with the identification and TDI scores in men, as did the GN score, with homosexuals and those tending towards nonconformity outperforming the conformist ones.
In women, the GN score correlated with the threshold and TDI scores, with the conformist ones outperforming those tending towards nonconformity. The results suggest differences between male and female homosexuality and that olfactory abilities correlate with gender nonconformity in both sexes.
This study was supported by the following grants: GACR P407/10/1303, GAUK 6010 and MSM 0021620843 - "ANTROPOLOGIE KOMUNIKACE A LIDSKE ADAPTACE".