Accordingly, altruistic tendencies toward genetic relatives are higher than those directed toward unrelated individuals in many animal species including humans (Burnstein et al. First, it facilitates attachment to family members which in turn increases investment in genetically related individuals. Kin recognition fulfills two critical biological functions. 1998)) and in humans (Havlicek and Roberts 2009). The sense of smell is known to be involved in kin recognition in animals (e.g., hamsters (Todrank et al. It is thought that genetically determined body odor compounds (resulting from the genetic similarity of children and their parents) foster initial bonding. These developmental compounds change as a function of age and are related to the natural hormonal changes taking place as a child gets older (Blakemore et al. 2013) and compounds related to development-dependent phenotypic traits (Thornhill et al. In a group of elements potentially important in the context of bonding, one can mention at least two different systems influencing body odor: peptides from the stable and genetically determined HLA complex (Milinski et al. Anecdotal observations support this: While parents seem to enjoy the body odor of their babies, they rarely talk with the same fascination about the body odor of their pubertal or postpubertal children.īody odors exhibit a considerable amount of variance, related to stable and variable compounds (Fialová et al. We assume that the same is true for the child’s body odor. 2009), lose importance and vanish during transition into adulthood (Luo et al. Hence, the biological triggers of care, such as the baby schema (Kindchenschema) (Glocker et al. With increasing self-dependence, it is no longer pivotal that the parents always prioritize their child. The parent-child relationship is affected and shaped by a multiplicity of changes during the development of the child, e.g., social or cognitive development. Perceiving babies’ body odor as pleasant may thus be one of the mechanisms contributing to cost compensation and creation of familial bonds despite all problems associated with initial caretaking. However, this reward is rather implicit, in contrast to direct and immediate rewards associated with baby body odor (Lundstrom et al. In the long term, caretaking is obviously rewarding, because it increases a person’s genetic fitness. In addition, parents often prioritize the children’s needs above their own and the safety of the child becomes their major concern (Leckman et al. Caretaking does, however, bear costs on the parents-in modern, Western societies, it is time-consuming and expensive. Affective bonds with the caregiver are essential for a child’s social and emotional development, and they are strongly dependent on initial caretaking (Bowlby 1988). For example, the ability to recognize one’s own child fosters the expression of warm feelings toward the baby (Corter and Fleming 1995 Del Cerro 1998 Depue and Morrone-Strupinsky 2005). It seems that the perception of body odors may contribute to parent-child bonding. 1993), and the sheer presence of a baby body odor activates reward-related brain areas (Lundstrom et al. Body odors of pre-pubertal children are evaluated as very pleasant in general (Ferdenzi et al. 1980), or even hours of giving birth, mothers can distinguish the smell of their child from the smell of other babies (Kaitz et al. Women who were born without the sense of smell declare that they regret missing out on this seemingly wonderful experience (Bojanowski et al. Parents typically report that the odor of their baby is one of the most pleasant scents that they can imagine.
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