Effect of Scents on Gazing Behavior and Choice

Abstract

Environmental stimuli can have a significant impact on our decisions. Elements of the store atmosphere, such as music, lights and smells, all have effects on choices, but these have been only vaguely investigated. In the present study, we aim to uncover the effect of strawberry scent on the gazing behavior and choices of the 62 recruited participants. A static eye-tracker was used to study the effect of scent, released by a diffuser. In total, 31 participants completed the study under odorless conditions, while another 31 participants had strawberry fragrance sprayed into the air. The objectives of the study were (1) to determine whether the most gazed-upon product in each of the four categories (chocolate, tea, muesli bar, yoghurt) was chosen, (2) whether the presence of the strawberry scent influenced consumer decision making, i.e., whether the strawberry scent influenced more people to choose strawberry-flavored products, and (3) to introduce the application of a fast and easy-to-use technique for the qualitative analysis of strawberry aroma present in the air during eye-tracking measurements. The results show that (1) participants chose the product they had studied the longest, for all four categories, and (2) the presence or absence of the scent had no significant effect on choice, with the same frequencies of choosing each product in the two conditions regardless of the flavor of the products.

Odors Change Visual Attention. A Case Study with Stawberry Odor and Differently Flavoured Yoghurts

“…The results demonstrated that time to first fixation and first fixation duration parameters are influenced by the presence of strawberry odor. Previous studies reported that first fixation duration might be influenced by odors (Seo & Hummel, 2009), however, recent studies demonstrated that this effect is dependent on the product being evaluatued (Szakál et al, 2022). Odors have been identified as being able to 'grab' participants visual attention and to drive it to conguent images, however, the role of odors in final decisions is considered minor as there are multiple other factors influencing the final decision (Yang et al, 2023).…”