Research Design Connection: Coffee Scent – Implications

by Sally Augustin, Ph.D. | July 16th, 2018

Madzharov and her colleagues have determined that the scent of coffee has a powerful effect on humans – employers should probably invest in coffee makers that generate lots of coffee aromas and position those coffee makers in break areas throughout their offices. The Madzharov-lead team explored “the effect of an ambient coffee-like scent (versus no scent) on expectations regarding performance on an analytical reasoning task as well as on actual performance…people in a coffee-scented (versus unscented) environment perform better on an analytical reasoning task due to heightened performance expectations…[and] people expect that being in a coffee-scented environment will increase their performance because they expect it will increase their physiological arousal…a coffee-like scent (which actually contains no caffeine) can elicit a placebo effect.” Note that when a coffee odor was present, “The scent smelled like coffee but contained no actual caffeine or other stimulants.” Adriana Madzharov, Ning Ye, Maureen Morrin, and …