Part I by Susan Holt Coordinating Mentor New York State Biology Mentor Network

"Hey Laurie! Did you notice how the guys at lunch today were flirting with me? I'm sure it's because I'm wearing my new guy attracting chemical!"

"What's a guy attracting chemical?" Laurie asked.

Jean explained, "They call it a pheromone. I found an ad for this stuff called Pheromone 10:13 in a magazine. It sounded really great. The ad said that it would 'increase your sex appeal.' You just mix a little bottle of this unscented chemical with your cologne and it 'gets you more romantic attention.' It was expensive, about $100 for one little bottle, but I used it today and obviously it's worth it. You should buy some too."

Laurie really hadn't noticed the guys paying more attention to Jean. She retorted, "If this pheromone stuff really attracts guys, why don't more people use it? Why should I waste my money on a quack product?"

Jean bristled at Laurie's comment. "I should show you the ad! They make two kinds of pheromones—10X for guys to attract girls and 10:13 for girls to attract guys. You should read what people are saying! One guy says that this pheromone stuff 'really has science behind it' and that he notices a big difference when he's wearing it. A woman says that she can almost feel the 'energy of the men's attraction to her.' They have testimonials from all sorts of people who say pheromones really work for them."

Laurie couldn't believe that Jean would fall for testimonials. "You see those kinds of things in lots of ads. Diet pill ads have lots of people saying they lost gigantic amounts of weight. But they're a rip-off—they usually don't work and my mother says that they're not safe."

But Jean had a come-back for that: "A real doctor who has written in medical books and journals discovered these pheromones. She did scientific research that proves that pheromones work. These pheromones aren't cheap imitations that fail. She started a company that sells them. And how can it be unsafe if you just put a little on your skin? They even have an Internet site that tells you all about this scientific evidence."

Laurie wasn't quite sure now. If these pheromones had been scientifically tested by a real doctor, well, that made her wonder. "I'll take a look at the Internet site tonight. What's the address?"

Jean had the address written down. "It's http://www.Athena-Inst.com. Go see for yourself."

Questions

1. Do you believe that the Athena pheromone really does what the ad claims?
2. What information in the advertisement leads you to believe that the pheromone works?
3. What additional information would help to convince you that the pheromone does what is claimed?

Image Credit:   Lilli Lehmann as Isolde in Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde.  Photograph by Aimé Dupont, courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera, used with permission. http://www.metopera.org/history/week-961230.html.
Date Posted:  04/24/02 nas