‘Tis the season for the year’s most misguided environmental scenting. Right now, in stores across the world, the smells of cinnamon and pine are nauseating shoppers in one store after another. But smellscaping can be different!
Adding scents to a space doesn’t have to be so heavy handed, and subtle scenting can make it much more likely that a space achieves whatever objectives clients and designers have set for it.
State-of-the-art scent distributors can be integrated easily into a building’s HVAC system and can delicately distribute smells throughout a structure. The concentrations of odorants dispersed can be so small that they will not result in allergic reactions, although even the tiniest bits of smells can influence humans’ thoughts and behaviors. The likelihood of any adverse effects of scenting just about reaches zero when high-quality artificial odors are used. To be effective, it’s not necessary for people to be aware that a scent has been added to the air and scents continue to influence us long after our noses have forgotten they’re around.
Adding any pleasant smell to a space boosts our mood, which has all sorts of desirable repercussions. When we’re in a better mood, we’re better at problem solving, creative tasks, and getting along with others. Even our immune systems work better when we’re in a good mood. Smelling a good smell also cuts our stress levels.
So, adding a generic good smell to a space can pay off – but scientists have linked particular scents to very special outcomes.
Isen found, for example, in rigorously conducted studies that the smell of cinnamon was tied to particularly good performance on creative thinking type tasks.
Sellaro and teammates have tied smelling lavender with greater trust of others.
Other researchers have linked smelling sage or rosemary to improved memory function, and lemon to enhanced performance on mental work. Happiness and wellbeing has been tied to smelling sweet scents, particularly strawberries.
Smellscaping won’t blindly drive people to one behavior or another, but can make particular moods, etc., more likely. It can gently guide outcomes to the thoughts and behaviors desired in particular spaces – so try it out in your own offices and then share it with clients.
Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.