Dating and smell go hand-in-hand and new research suggests a closer link between them than previously thought.

According to a new study, single men smell different than men in relationships and it seems that smell difference is enough for women to pick up on!

Photo: Pexels/Diego Rezende

Research on the matter titled "Do Single Men Smell and Look Different to Partnered Men?" was published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

Researchers from Macquarie University wanted to see if women could tell the difference in smell between single men and coupled men. To do this, they offered 91 men (46 single and 45 partnered) a t-shirt and had them wear it for one day. They were instructed to engage in exercise to allow sweat to absorb onto the shirt.

Photo: Pexels/Andrea Piacquadio

Once the day was up, researchers collected the sample shirts and had 82 heterosexual women sniff various ones. As the women sniffed the shirt, she viewed a photo of the man who had been wearing it.

As it turns out, the women found single men's BO smelled stronger than the partnered men's BO. Despite that being true, the single men's odor wasn't rated as more attractive than the partnered men's odor - it was simply found to be stronger.

Photo: Pexels/Yulia Polyakova

The study authors wrote:

"Humans do not rely solely on visual cues to assess the suitability of a potential partner, but also make judgments using their sense of smell. Specifically, the body odor (BO) of a potential partner is assessed by our sense of smell and given BOs can signal physical health and genetic compatibility with a potential partner, the role of BOs in mate attraction, and preference is not surprising."