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Clean Smells unconsciously promote good
behavior
Newswise — People are unconsciously fairer and more
generous when they are in clean-smelling
environments, according to a soon-to-be
published study led by a Brigham Young
University professor.
The research found a dramatic improvement in ethical
behavior with just a few spritzes of
citrus-scented Windex.
Katie Liljenquist, assistant professor of organizational
leadership at BYU’s Marriott School of
Management, is the lead author on the piece
in a forthcoming issue of Psychological
Science.
Co-authors are Chen-Bo Zhong of the University of Toronto’s
Rotman School of Management and Adam
Galinsky of the Kellogg School of Management
at Northwestern University.
The researchers see implications for workplaces, retail
stores and other organizations that have
relied on traditional surveillance and
security measures to enforce rules.
“Companies often employ heavy-handed interventions to
regulate conduct, but they can be costly or
oppressive,” said Liljenquist, whose office
smells quite average. “This is a very
simple, unobtrusive way to promote ethical
behavior.”
Perhaps the findings could be applied at home, too,
Liljenquist said with a smile. “Could be
that getting our kids to clean up their
rooms might help them clean up their acts,
too.”
The study titled “The Smell of Virtue” was unusually simple
and conclusive.
Participants engaged in
several tasks, the only difference being
that some worked in unscented rooms, while
others worked in rooms freshly spritzed with
Windex.
The first experiment evaluated fairness. As a test of
whether clean scents would enhance
reciprocity, participants played a classic
“trust game.” Subjects received $12 of real
money (allegedly sent by an anonymous
partner in another room). They had to decide
how much of it to either keep or return to
their partners who had trusted them to
divide it fairly.
Subjects in clean-scented
rooms were less likely to exploit the trust
of their partners, returning a significantly
higher share of the money.
· The average amount of cash given back by the people in
the “normal” room was $2.81. But the people
in the clean-scented room gave back an
average of $5.33.
The second experiment evaluated whether clean scents would
encourage charitable behavior.
Subjects
indicated their interest in volunteering
with a campus organization for a Habitat for
Humanity service project and their interest
in donating funds to the cause.
· Participants surveyed in a Windex-ed room were
significantly more interested in
volunteering (4.21 on a 7-point scale) than
those in a normal room (3.29).
· 22 percent of Windex-ed room participants said they’d
like to donate money, compared to only 6
percent of those in a normal room.
Follow-up questions confirmed that participants didn’t
notice the scent in the room and that their
mood at the time of the experiment didn’t
affect the outcomes.
“Basically, our study shows that morality and cleanliness
can go hand-in-hand,” said Galinsky of the
Kellogg School.
“Researchers have known for
years that scents play an active role in
reviving positive or negative experiences.
"Now, our research can offer more insight
into the links between people’s charitable
actions and their surroundings.”
While this study examined the influence of the physical
environment on morality, Zhong and
Liljenquist previously published work that
demonstrated an intimate link between
morality and physical cleanliness.
Their
2006 paper in Science reported that
transgressions activated a desire to be
physically cleansed.
Liljenquist is now researching how perceptions of
cleanliness shape our impressions of people
and organizations.
“The data tell a
compelling story about how much we rely upon
cleanliness cues to make a wide range of
judgments about others,” she said.
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