Researchers crack olfactory code for partner selection, synthesise first biologically effective perfume: http://phys.org/news/2013-02-olfactory-c....html#nwlt
(Medical Xpress)—Individual body odour plays an important role in partner selection. Humans, mice, fish and birds, and probably other vertebrates too, receive important information about a potential partner's immune system from their body odour. A partner is chosen on the bases of whether he or she offers the optimum complement to the individual's own immune genes. The aim is to pass on a wide variety of immune genes to the offspring so that they are resistant to a broad spectrum of pathogens. Although several hundred different forms of the immune genes exist in humans, individuals only have a few variants which co-determine their typical body odour, their individual "scent". Scientists from the Max Planck Institutes of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg and for Evolutionary Biology in Plön, together with colleagues from the University of Dresden Medical School, have succeeded in explaining the chemical nature of this individual scent, synthesized it and tested its effectiveness on test persons. The results show how perfumes that are completely effective biologically can be produced synthetically without resorting to animal products.

I just had a thought while reading that article.
Please excuse that my jabbering isn't the quality of science you're accustomed to.

I wonder how far this goes in explaining attraction to foreigners?

WHAT?
Well I was thinking about the women I am attracted to and realized many of them are foreigners.
I had always assumed it was just my preference for dark features, since people often choose mates who look like themselves.

Then I got thinking about some women who were attracted to me, or at least that some certain ethnic groups seem attracted to me. Within one particular country the women will select mates with lighter skin tone. While my skin is lighter than their men, I am by no means pale.
So why the attraction?

Do you think this might be factor in one race's attraction to another on a macro scale?

I'm tempted to list certain race's where this might apply but suspect they'd be attributed to some social factor.
ie. Caucasian men like Asian women because they are reputed to be submissive, or some other social nonsense..

(02-01-2013 11:19 PM)John Schlongfellow Wrote:  Do you think this might be factor in one race's attraction to another on a macro scale?

Racial differences in production of natural body odor cannot be intelligently discussed except among trusted colleagues due to the branding of anyone who attempts to do so as a racist. We mentioned them in "The Scent of Eros: Mysteries of Odor in Human Sexuality" because we cited the reported observations of others in that context.