ASD and diminished perception of "social smell"?

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I'm wondering if one's social olfactory abilities are diminished in people with ASD/HFA? Like the ability to pick up on certain "social scents" like fear, attraction, hostility, etc.?

I recall reading somewhere that NTs use social smell on some level, maybe pheromones or something, to intuit somebody else's emotional state... which just seems totally bizarre to me. Body language I get, but smell???!?

I also remember reading some experiment in which young women sniffed the sweat from the clothes of two different males, one was the stereotypical "cocky jock" alpha male, the other was like a timid "omega male", and they could distinguish the former's scent as more attractive. But to use this in a dynamic social context, like a dance club for 20-somethings, seems odd to me - I recall going to such clubs regularly back in the day, and having decent success in terms of make-outs and pick-ups...it helped that I was good looking and worked out, and had a good CS/IT job with a few supportive friends who gave me guidance, so maybe I didn't totally emit the "omega male" scent, like I was in one of the middle Greek letters or something

To that end, I came across this article about how, on some primal levels, men and women are unconsciously communicating through scent... which again seems totally absurd to me... I only thought about perfume & cologne, and making sure I'd taken mouthwash before going out (and being a lifelong non-smoker helped), and that earlier in the day I'd hit the gym for a good workout. But yeah, even when I approached the "hot babe" with a big chest and curvy hips I felt some nervousness which I repressed, which may have been noticed due to primal scent thus resulting in rejection (or not)

It is absurd. I don't know where you heard that from. It is a known fact that humans sense of smell aren't as powerful as most animals. In nature, animals that rely on their sense of smell often have faces that are shaped with a long nose, like rats for example. Humans don't have long noses, our faces are rather flat, and our noses aren't designed as a strong survival tool. Animals like dogs can smell fear or threat but not humans so much.

You know what I also found was an anomaly: they say that psychopaths have an impaired sense of smell, in fact it's one of the diagnostic criteria recommended by Dr. Robert Hare (expert on psychopathy) to identify if someone is a psychopath. I say this is an anomaly, b/c psychopaths are usually reputed to have high spontaneous sensory integration when manipulating or instilling fear in victims - like the [albeit fictitious] example of Dr. Hannibal Lecter who had an impeccable sense of smell.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 124717.htm

The study finds the reactions to social chemosignals are "altered".

Trying to find this, I came across some other studies but didn't read them yet.