Zhou 2014

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

Investigate the effects of AND and EST on heterosexual and homosexual men and women

Question 2

Procedure

Answer 2

Participants were presented with a point-light walker task, a set of dots that move in a way that represents the properties of human motion. The participants were asked to identify the gender of the stick figure in motion.

Each day, over 3 consecutive days, participants were continuously exposed to either AND mixed with cloves, EST mixed with cloves, or a control solution, mixed with cloves, being given only one of the scents per day (which were also counterbalanced to control for order effects).

Question 3

Results

Answer 3

Heterosexual females and gay males exposed to AND had a higher rate of identifying the stick figure as masculine than the control group, while it had no effect on heterosexual men or lesbian women.

Question 4

Finding

Answer 4

It appears that AND may have some effect on human sexual behavior.

Question 5

2 pros, 2 cons

Answer 5

• Counterbalancing of scents to control for order effects
• Experiment, meaning high causality and increased internal validity
• Replication of the study failed by Hare et al in 2018, indicating that the results may not be reliable
• Superphysiological levels of AND and EST were used in the study (more than humans naturally excrete) which lowers ecological validity