photographist

“Ethology is the study of behaviour. We observe and analyse behaviour with rigorous scientific methods to understand its function, ontogeny and evolution. We want to know why and how living organisms do what they do.
I started my career by studying social insects including ants, bees and wasps. Their societies operate perfectly. I try to understand their communication strategies, which are mainly based on chemistry. We humans use words to transfer information, but social insects, together with many other insects and animals in general, use chemical messages, namely pheromones. During my PhD thesis I studied social parasites, an ant species that is able to break the communication code of other species, and then penetrate into their colonies to rob their precious resources.

Chemical communication in humans is still not very well understood, although it appears to be important in our social life. Human pheromones have not been identified in detail. For instance, I try to understand the role of body odour, in particular of some candidate pheromones, in emotional interactions between men and women. Certain odours might have a specific meaning, and act as signals influencing our mate choice, together with visual and acoustic signals. We can change our look, our behaviour, but we cannot cheat with our body odour. Our personal odour is an honest signal that is particularly interesting to study because it is very difficult to modify intentionally.
I believe that women should completely avoid being seductive in all occasions that are work-related. Women should always rely on their intelligence and try to be irreproachable.”

Patrizia d'Ettorre
Professor of Ethology, University of Paris 13 - Sorbonne Paris Cité

next