If you have made a good genetic choice of partner (ie, someone with a significantly different MHC), then the theory suggests that you should not be able to choose something that smells nice to them based on your own preferences.

ECONOMIST: Perfume science

Dr Milinski and Dr Wedekind also found an association between a woman's MHC genes and some of her preferences for perfume.

ECONOMIST: Perfume science

The MHC is also thought to act as a proxy for general outbreeding, with all the hybrid vigour that can bring.

ECONOMIST: Perfume science

You might, though, have better luck choosing for a close relation, because she would probably have an MHC similar to your own.

ECONOMIST: Perfume science

Women, it seems, choose not the kind of smell they would like on a partner, or even one that might mask a nasty odour of their own, but rather something that matches their MHC.

ECONOMIST: Perfume science