Love hormone boosts strangers' sex appeal.

From ABC News:

A chemical best known for cementing the bond between a mother and her newborn child could also play a part in picking mister (or miss) right.

A new study shows that men and women who inhale a whiff of the hormone oxytocin rate strangers as more attractive.

When oxytocin courses through our blood, "we are more likely to see people we don't know in a more positive light," says Angeliki Theodoridou, a psychologist at the University of Bristol, UK, who led the new study.

This effect adds to the hormone's known role in human relationships. One study found that oxytocin levels spike after new mothers look at or touch their newborns and may help bonding.