Synthetic Copulin Does Not Affect Men’s Sexual Behavior

Chemical communication plays an important role in the social interactions and mating behavior of diverse animal taxa; yet its role in humans remains equivocal. Using a randomized, placebo-controlled experiment involving 243 male participants, we test whether exposure to synthetic copulin – a mixture of volatile fatty acids secreted vaginally in primates, increases 1) men’s sexual motivation using an incentivized behavioral task, 2) self-reported...