There's Something in the Air: Effects of Congruent or Incongruent Ambient Odor on Consumer Decision Making

Abstract

Pleasant ambient odors are found to affect consumer decision making depending on whether the scents are congruent or incongruent with the target product class. Two different choice contexts are examined. In experiment 1, in a static-choice context, subjects in conditions in which the odor is congruent with the product class are found to spend more time processing the data, are more holistic in their processing, are more likely to go beyond the information given, and are more likely to spread their choices evenly over the whole choice set than are subjects in the incongruent-odor conditions. In experiment 2, in a dynamic-choice context, subjects in the congruent conditions are more likely to exhibit behavior that is consistent with variety seeking than are subjects in the incongruent conditions.