2327 Political Odor

Sometimes you wonder when you hear of the things scientists try to figure out. They don't always seem relevant, but who knows. The space race, after all, led to the development of Tang and Squeeze Cheese.

So I was curious when I read of scientific research about your smell and your political beliefs. Both your sense of smell and your actual smell. It got either political side in a sweat. Literally.

Scientists asked volunteers to rate sweat samples from 21 people whose political beliefs were either strongly liberal or strongly conservative. Apparently a double-blind single-nose test.

The researchers found that people much prefer the body odor of those who share a similar political ideology. In other words, if the volunteers were conservatives, they preferred the odor of conservatives. Liberals liked liberals. 

I assume this was after controlling for the odiferous effects of chewing tobacco or patchouli.

It certainly lends credence to the idea of birds of a feather flocking together. And the notion that people are attracted to each other by more than the sight of their beauty or the sound of their voice. Your potential mate has to smell good too. At least to you.

That's who could benefit from this research. Dating services. One of their deficiencies has always been that you can't send a smell online. So the chances of each date being successful ran the risk of being snuffed early by olfactory rejection. Now the potential datee need only fill out a standard political preference questionnaire and the smell factor will take care of itself. 

I guess I really am an independent. I can't conceive of liking the body odor of either Rush Limbaugh or Keith Olbermann. 

Funny though, how both their last names sound like types of stinky cheese. 

America, ya gotta love it.