The study found that mice are afraid of men, but they are not afraid of women.

The British Daily Mail reported that scientists have recently discovered that when rodents smell the smell of human males around them, they become more depressed and more afraid, but the presence of women has little or no effect on them. This finding may help explain why women are often described as more afraid of rats - this is because when no man exists, the mouse may be relatively "frightened." The results of this study may be instructive for experiments in which mice are used as subjects, as the sex of the investigator may alter the behavior of the animal.

“The whispers of the researchers during the experiment will make the subject – the rodents aware of their existence, which may affect the results of the experiment. However, this conjecture has never been directly confirmed before.” Leading this The neuroscientist at the study, Professor Jeffrey Mogil of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, said.

This report suggests that animal-based experiments may require corresponding improvements, but it is often difficult to repeat such experiments. “At least all published articles must state the gender of the experimental researcher who performed the animal behavior test.” The chemical signals produced by humans and animals may have triggered fear in animals.

This chemical signal, called pheromone, is considered a subconscious trigger for sexual attraction. In the animal world, they are often used by animals to mark their own territory. Men tend to produce more pheromones than women, although humans cannot detect the difference in odor. However, mice that can smell the smell of men tend to think they are in a state of being threatened.

The presence of an unknown male can cause the animal to be in a state of high tension, which is equivalent to a mouse being closed in a closed pipe for 15 minutes or forced to swim for 3 minutes. Even the T-shirts that men have recently worn are enough to make the mice uneasy because the smell of men still remains on the clothes.

However, the presence of unknown women does not induce the same fear, and the behavior of rodents does not change significantly when they exist. Women can scare rats with shirts with a masculine smell, but the effect is very limited - once the animals adapt to the smell, their fear will gradually disappear within an hour. The study was published in the journal Nature-Methods.