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Sweating it out: The influence of sex and emotions on human sweat production

2025-10Journal article Open access
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datacite.subject.fosCiências Sociais::Psicologia
datacite.subject.sdg03:Saúde de Qualidade
dc.contributor.authorGomes, Nuno
dc.contributor.authorBenrós, Miguel F.
dc.contributor.authorMartins, Jorge S.
dc.contributor.authorSemin, Gün R.
dc.contributor.authorSemin, Gün Refik
dc.contributor.authorGomes, Nuno
dc.date.accessioned2025-10-09T15:44:24Z
dc.date.available2025-10-09T15:44:24Z
dc.date.issued2025-10
dc.description.abstractHuman sweat conveys a wealth of information about its donors, including their emotional state at the time of release. While extensive research has examined the communicative potential of human sweat, the mechanisms underlying emotional sweat production remain underexplored. This study employed a data-driven approach with a large sample of sweat donors (N = 334; most participants were university students) to investigate the relation between sweat production and the emotional state of males and females across three conditions – fear, happiness, and rest. Four key questions were addressed: (i) Do males produce more sweat than females across emotional conditions? (ii) Does sweat production vary as a function of emotional experience? (iii) Is sweat production associated with self-ratings of emotional experience? and (iv) Are there sex differences in these associations? Results revealed that males produced significantly more sweat than females in fear-inducing conditions, which also showed the highest overall sweat production. Contrary to prior findings, happiness-related sweat production did not exceed that of rest in either sex, a discrepancy potentially due to contextual factors. Moreover, sweat production was positively associated with reported negative emotional experience during the fear-inducing sessions, but only for males. This suggests that male, but not female, donors may have the capacity to encode emotional intensity in sweat production. These findings provide new insights into the physiological and contextual factors that shape emotional communication through sweat, with potentially important implications for future research. Additionally, the observed sex asymmetries are discussed in light of a possible evolutionary explanation.eng
dc.description.sponsorshipFundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCT
dc.identifier.citationGomes, N., Benrós, M. F., Martins, J. S., & Semin, G. R. (2025). Sweating it out: The influence of sex and emotions on human sweat production. Biological Psychology, 201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109125
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109125
dc.identifier.issn0301-0511
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10400.12/13628
dc.language.isoeng
dc.peerreviewedyes
dc.publisherElsevier BV
dc.relationUID/ 04810/2020
dc.relation.ispartofBiological Psychology
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectEmotions
dc.subjectBody odors
dc.subjectSweat production
dc.subjectSex differences
dc.subjectChemosensory emotional communication
dc.titleSweating it out: The influence of sex and emotions on human sweat productioneng
dc.typejournal article
dspace.entity.typePublication
oaire.citation.titleBiological Psychology
oaire.citation.volume201
oaire.versionhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
person.familyNameSemin
person.familyNameGomes
person.givenNameGün Refik
person.givenNameNuno
person.identifier203772
person.identifier.ciencia-idEA14-E066-C3CE
person.identifier.ciencia-id6713-CA64-F3AB
person.identifier.orcid0000-0002-5304-5566
person.identifier.orcid0000-0002-0545-607X
person.identifier.ridJ-4046-2013
person.identifier.scopus-author-id7006221548
person.identifier.scopus-author-id57192590353
relation.isAuthorOfPublication73f72b68-f97c-4fcf-981d-39621b3a9f9e
relation.isAuthorOfPublication5cb5f94d-4235-4340-b433-2837355b8cf8
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery73f72b68-f97c-4fcf-981d-39621b3a9f9e

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