# Doty, *Great Pheromone Myth*, 2010 > [!cite] > Doty, Richard L. *The Great Pheromone Myth*. John Hopkins University Press, 2010. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/embed/greatpheromonemy0000doty. --- ‘\[…] the basic tenet of the pheromone concept—that one or a few hormone-like species-specific chemicals are the messages—is generally fallacious when applied to mammals. In this group of vertebrates, chemically mediated social processes are rarely hardwired, and most chemicals involve din their social communication are idiosyncratic and comprised of multiple compounds, a number of which are affected by stress, diet, and other factors. Even when neuroendocrine responses are involved, the influences come from multiple chemicals and depend as much on the receiver as the sender, commonly being influenced by the receiver’s prior experience and motivational state. Clearly, the meaning of the information transferred via the chemical medium does not reside solely in the stimulus.’ [[Doty, Great Pheromone Myth, 2010|(Doty 2010, 2)]] ^eb9407