Scent from heaven: how different aromas affect our behaviour

Scents, as smells are known in high-brow circles, immediately help us feel at home in a space. We wear perfumes and colognes to create a small bubble around ourselves, a mini- territory if you like.  Humans always feel better in a space that they ‘own’.

How we choose to make ourselves smell, and make the spaces around us smell, via room fresheners, scentscapes and similar tools, is often rooted in the most positive parts of our past—and the selective way we remember it.

I am, as usual, happy to use myself as an example. My favourite memories from my childhood were spent with my Aunt Frances.  She liked to cook fragrant foods and her entire home smelled of their odours. Some examples of the scents hanging in the air in her home: ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon.

These are the scents that I now wear and use in my home. When I smell these scents, my life is significantly better, my mood and wellbeing go up, up, up. I think better, I’m better company, and I’m more creative—all sorts of good things happen in my head and the world around me.

Subtle approach

My perfume should not invade your space, unless you choose to stand very, very close to me, and the scents I use in my home shouldn’t bowl you over at the door. Scents should always be very, very subtle—anything more seems like an attempt to control, or just plain rude.

There is a straightforward rule of thumb for how much scent—whether that comes from air fresheners, potpourri, or any other odour-dispersing system—should be present in a space; using it can require a few testing iterations.

First step: add a little bit of your chosen scent to the air in an area. When people visit, get them talking about the space. If anyone spontaneously mentions how it smells, dial back how much scent is present before the next time you entertain and ask the same question. When the odor present becomes so light that it is never spontaneously mentioned, ask anyone who comes by directly what your home smells like. When less than half can correctly identify the smell (for example, in my home that smell would be ginger), you have hit the smell-amount sweet spot.

You can use a similar approach with perfume—there should never be enough present for people to mention it out-of-the-blue when you show up. Scents influence what we do and think even when we do not consciously perceive they are present.

Allergic reactions

But what about the allergic, you may ask?  In this era, almost all scents available for your use are artificially generated—except for some potpourri—so if I make a space smell like ginger, it won’t trigger a reaction in people allergic to ginger because there is no actual ginger in place. People might be allergic to the chemicals used in air fresheners, in general, as preservatives, and for other uses, but let’s face it, people can be allergic to all sorts of things, from nuts to linen to latex.

If someone is extremely sensitive, it is likely that they are confined to their home, but if they are out, they will immediately sense if a scent is present that they find irritating and they can almost definitely leave. If they must stay, perhaps to wait for a doctor’s appointment, there must be some accommodation for their sensitivity—perhaps a centralised no-scent waiting area used by all the physicians in a building.

Signature scents

Lots of organisations are scenting spaces and objects and sometimes developing their own signature scents—which I think is great and enjoy very much. Scenting, with signature smells, or not, make it more likely that people have experiences that they want to repeat (such an approach can increase retail sales or staff loyalty, for example, or make a trip to the dentist less daunting).

Olfactory agents, as smells are known in the scientific world, can have very specific effects on what goes on in our heads, and I’ll recap some of those here, if you’re wondering what sorts of odours you should prioritise beyond the ones that you cherish.

Some olfactory agents have the peer-reviewed seal of approval of neuroscience research. They can improve our mood, lower stress levels, and even change our perceptions of time – we think we’ve spent less time in an area that’s pleasantly scented than we do in ones that are unscented. This can be really handy in places where people will inevitably need to wait.

To reduce anxiety, try oranges, florals (particularly jasmine and hyacinth), or vanilla. To help people relax, research points to lemon, mango and lavender. To improve memory function and alertness: rosemary and peppermint. To enhance knowledge worker performance: lemon. To feel more energetic: grapefruit, tangerine, peppermint, and eucalyptus. To create trust in others: lavender.

Technically speaking, research also suggests that intermittent releases of fragrances are more effect that supplying them continuously.

Scents are your friends…invite them into your life – and your workspace.