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Kelsi Novitsky- Box 1055
Aromas and the placebo effect: Does lemon scent impact task focus? Does this focus improve
when students are told about the intended effects of lemon aroma?
Introduction
This paper focuses on the impact of aroma in persuasion in conjunction with the placebo effect.
According to Persuasion Social Influence and Compliance Gaining, fragrances can be very
persuasive, and are being used more frequently as ambient aroma in public spaces to persuade
shoppers or employees in said spaces. However, different aromas will have different persuasive
effects, and not every aroma will effect each individual the same way (Gass & Seiter, 346).
For example, according to Sally Augustin, Ph.D., ambient Lemon aromas
enhance cognitive abilities and focus in most people. For this reason, she recommends using
lemon drops to stimulate focus and cognition when engaging in intellectually vigorous activities
such as exams or challenging word puzzles. Augustin also suggests that scents do not have to be
above the threshold of consciousness to be persuasive; aromatic persuasion is subliminal. It’s
suggested that persuasion through aromas works because “Smell is the strongest of the senses
and is best able to influence brain activity. Olfactory bulbs are part of the limbic system and
directly connect to the areas of the brain that process emotion and learning” (Evans).
These suggestions aren’t without proof. Numerous studies have been conducted on
aromas and persuasion as the practice of aromatherapy becomes more popular. One such study in
1994 tested participants under low and moderate stress in conjunction with the presence of
satisfactory aromas to measure the effects of aroma on task performance. Participants were given
anagram puzzles, and as expected, those exposed to attractive scents performed better, even in
more stressful settings (Baron).
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However, it has been suggested that the idea associated with a particular aroma can also
be persuasive due to the placebo effect and not necessarily the presence of the scent. Essentially,
it has been suggested that aromas are persuasive simply because we expect them to be. If we
expect a certain scent to impact us in a certain way, research has suggested it will (Gass & Seiter
346). This paper therefore explores the impact of a task-focus enhancing aroma, specifically
lemon, on college freshmen. The placebo effect is also tested by telling students lemon improves
focus before they are given an assigned task. The first hypothesis is that ambient lemon scent
will positively impact the task-focus of college freshmen. The second hypothesis is that by
informing college freshmen of the focus enhancing effects of lemon, the aroma will be
increasingly more effective than an unscented room, or ambient lemon scent on its own.
Methodology
The sample was three dignitas classes, held Thursday at 12:00 or 1:00 PM. Dignitas
students are freshmen and are between ages 18-19. Each class consisted of 19 students.
Two of the classrooms were scented with lemon before class began. The third classroom
served as a control and was not scented. All three classes were provided with a 1-page word-
picture worksheet (“bamboozables”). Students were given 5 minutes to complete as many
problems as they could. Beforehand, one classroom containing lemon scent was told about the
focus enhancing effects of lemon. The other scented classroom was not told anything about the
scent. The third classroom served as a control and was not told anything about aromas or task-
focus. The completed worksheets served to infer which class had the best task-focus. They were
scored according to both the number of questions completed and the number or problems correct,
serving as the coding manual.
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Results:
Question # Control group (19) Scent only (19) Scent & placebo (19)
1- “I see you
understand”
Correct: 3
Completed: 8
Correct: 4
Completed: 9
Correct: 4
Completed: 7
2- “Did it cross
your mind?”
Correct: 1
Completed: 12
Correct: 3
Completed: 9
Correct: 1
Completed: 10
3- “All in all” Correct: 0
Completed: 5
Correct: 0
Completed: 4
Correct: 3
Completed: 7
4- “Little house
on the prairie”
Correct: 14
Completed: 17
Correct: 16
Completed: 19
Correct: 15
Completed: 17
5- “Incomplete
sentence”
Correct: 7
Completed: 14
Correct: 4
Completed: 13
Correct: 3
Completed: 13
6- “Count
Dracula”
Correct: 8
Completed: 9
Correct: 8
Completed: 9
Correct: 9
Completed: 10
7- “A tune up” Correct: 0
Completed: 7
Correct: 3
Completed: 5
Correct: 2
Completed: 4
8- “For rent” Correct: 12
Completed: 12
Correct: 14
Completed: 16
Correct: 16
Completed: 18
9- “Looking
high and low”
Correct: 1
Completed: 8
Correct: 6
Completed: 15
Correct: 4
Completed: 15
10- “Merry go
round”
Correct: 12
Completed: 17
Correct: 17
Completed: 17
Correct: 15
Completed: 15
11- “Four square” Correct: 11
Completed: 14
Correct: 18
Completed: 18
Correct: 16
Completed: 17
12- “3 little pigs” Correct: 15
Completed: 16
Correct: 17
Completed: 18
Correct: 15
Completed: 16
Table 1: Puzzle completion and accuracy. The highlighted portions indicate group that
performed best (averaged on both general completion and accuracy) on individual questions.
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The control group, without the presence of an ambient aroma, performed best on 1 of 12
questions. The group in the presence of ambient aroma only performed best on 8 of 12 questions.
The group in the presence of ambient aroma and given information about the focus enhancing
effects of aromas (the placebo group) performed best on 3 of 12 questions. The control group
performed better than the placebo group on 2 of 12 questions, and better than the aroma only
group on 1 of 12 questions.
Conclusion and interpretations
This study focused on aroma and the placebo effect in regards to task-focus. In college
freshmen, ambient lemon aroma improves task-focus. However, the placebo effect does not
improve task focus. This study proved the first hypothesis to be accurate; ambient lemon aroma
positively improves task focus. However, the second hypothesis was proven inaccurate;
informing college freshman that lemon scent improves task focus did not improve task-focus any
more than ambient aroma did.
Ambient aroma was effective in improving task focus in part because a person’s sense of
smell is the strongest of the five senses, and because scents directly stimulate the emotional and
learning centers in the brain (Evans). This means students’ learning was directly impacted by the
presence of a focus-enhancing scent. Because emotions are also stimulated by aroma, students
felt more focused, and were able to focus better on the task at hand. Lemon scent, specifically,
improved focus because lemon is a fresh, invigorating, and natural scent. It was effective in
improving task performance for the same reasons that popular facial scrubs are citrus scented:
citrus fruits are invigorating and make the body and brain feel more awake.
The placebo effect did not improve task focus in part because of the credibility of the
experimenter. For starters, the class that was informed of the focus-enhancing effects of lemon
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didn’t believe the message because no evidence was presented and the source delivering the
message was not a credible source (As a fellow student in an informal classroom setting, I am
seen as a peer and therefore less credible). The class had no reason to believe lemon aroma
would actually improve their focus. Because of a lack of credibility, the message that aromas can
manipulate performance was less persuasive.
The placebo effect also didn’t enhance task-focus because of errors and inconsistencies in
the experiment itself. The control group and the ambient aroma group were two classes run by
the same professor in the same room, only an hour apart in time. However, the third class, the
placebo group, was directed by a different professor in a different classroom. While the first two
classes were structured and focused, the third class was run very casually and students were not
focused to begin with. It can be argued that the second professor is seen as less credible than the
first, which would also negatively impact the credibility of the presenter (a less credible source
endorsing another source makes the second source appear less credible). This allowed for
inaccurate results. Since more students were already distracted before the experiment in the third
classroom, it distracted the rest. Because of a difference in classroom dynamics, the experiment
was flawed.
In addition to the different classroom dynamics, the puzzles presented to the students had
ambiguous answers. Though students offered clever responses that would make sense with the
provided puzzle, students did not provide the documented answer, and were counted as incorrect
(This is why the results are based off not only accuracy, but level of overall completion).
Similarly, word and image puzzles stimulate a different part of the brain than math or science
problems. For the most part, students will excel at one or the other. This difference in cognitive
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strength could also have impacted the results of the experiment, based on how many students
think analytically versus conceptually.
Overall, lemon aroma positively impacted task performance because of the dominant
influence of a person’s sense of smell, along with the invigorating properties of citrus. The
placebo effect did not influence task-focus positively or negatively because of a lack of
credibility by the experimenter and errors in the execution of the experiment itself.
Works Cited
Augustin, Sally. “The Smell is Right- Using Scents to Enhance Life.” Psychology Today. Sussex
Publishers LLC, 23 Dec. 2009. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.
“Bamboozables.” Free Word Puzzles. Thinkablepuzzles.com, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.
Baron, Robert. “A whiff of Reality.” SAGE journals. SAGE Publications, 1994. Web. 17 Apr,
2015.
Evans, Lisa. “6 Scents that can Transform Your Mood and Productivity.” Entrepreneur. N.p. 07
Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.
Gass, Robert H., and John S. Seiter. “Persuasion, Social Influence, and Compliance
Gaining.” 4th ed. Boston: 2011. Print.
