- Use smells to enhance pro-social behavior – Interested to find a way to get family members to get along, be nicer to one another, and look out for each other? Try using a natural or electronic diffuser that emits the scent of vanilla or peppermint. A fascinating study by Liljenquist et al (2010) found that scents related to a clean environment can elevate behaviors like mutual trust and charity. Remember that a lot of our earliest memories are tied to home, and smell plays a huge part of that memory. Growing up, I remember that our house really didn’t have any specific smell that I associate it with, which is probably why I don’t have strong childhood memories of our family home. I had a working mum who was often at meetings with clients and didn’t spend a lot of time in the kitchen, so I don’t have any recollection of pleasant smells emanating from the oven or a coffee maker. My wife, on the other hand, has many fond memories of her mother preparing various delightful baked goods from their own family kitchen. Want to create strong memories of home? Create a signature scent for people to remember it by.
- Fragrance-infused (vs. no-odor) spaces enhance performance at work - Studies by Baron & Bronfen (1994) and Marchlewska et al (2016) have revealed that certain smells can improve teamwork and cooperation at work. Floral scents in particular have been found to enhance community behaviors such as generosity and cooperation. If you’re an employer looking for a way to promote teamwork, you may want to think about using organic cleaning materials to clean kitchen and bathroom countertops, ceramic sinks, toilets, tile walls, and vinyl floors, that mimic the smell of nature like pine or cedar. The clean and refreshing scent of nature has been shown to has been shown to boost feelings of friendliness and cooperation. As any boss knows, when people work well together, this can lead to higher levels of productivity and job satisfaction. In addition, using scented cleaners has been shown to boost feelings of accomplishment (44%), confidence (38%), and organization (36%).
- Pleasant smells help people concentrate better - Sage has been known to enhance productivity and mental focus. Putting a sage-scented candle in your bathroom or kitchen so that you can Inhale its fresh and clean scent early in the morning can help to get you in the right state of mind as you get out of the shower and prepare for a busy day of work. Lemon is another great alternative that boosts concentration and lowers levels of anxiety. You may want to put an electronic diffuser containing lemon-scented oil in your living room or bedroom in case you use that to relax after a long day and slow down your mind. Last but not least you may want to incorporate some peppermint scents in your kitchen or bathroom. Peppermint is known to promote concentration and stimulates clear thinking, which makes it ideal as an aromatherapy scent. If you have an electronic diffuser, put this underneath your home office desk and then buy a peppermint-infused essential oil so you can smell this while you work. If you go to an office downtown, make sure that your co-workers are okay with this as many corporate workplaces are required to be scent free.
- Unpleasant odors lower people’s tolerance for frustration – Ever wonder why family members may feel impatient, stressed or even angry whenever they’re at home? It may have something to do with what their noses are picking up. Do you have garbage underneath the kitchen sink that hasn’t been thrown out and is starting to emanate a stinky smell? That may be something that’s causing frustration for people around your house. Is there a strange odour that’s coming from the bathroom that's causing tension between you and your loved ones? When my wife and I lived in an apartment building, the tenants who rented the apartment directly above us liked to deep-fry strong-smelling food at midnight. The smell was so overpowering that it would wake up my wife whenever they cooked. It became an huge source of frustration for us as their cooking smells got pumped into our ensuite bathroom and into our bedroom through a gap beneath the door. We called in an engineer to address the issue, except he said that there wasn’t anything that could be done mechanically to improve the situation. He did suggest that we use masking tape to prevent smells from coming through our bathroom exhaust fan, which fixed the problem. Family tensions subsided and both of us were able to sleep soundly again at night.
- Exposure to pleasant smells improved people’s ability to solve problems – Do you work in a creative industry like graphic design, architecture, or fine art? Using a Jasmine-scented diffuser or candle can help enhance your creativity. The creative process can at times be challenging, and you may sometimes feel burnt out, distracted, or self-critical. Jasmine is known for its ability to inspire feelings of confidence and joy. A study from 2013 suggested that inhaling jasmine has positive stimulatory effects on the nervous system, brain wave activities, and mood states. Another scent you might want to incorporate in your work area (provided you’re allowed to do so) is lavender. Known for its calming properties, lavender is commonly used to treat neurological disorders and reduce anxiety. In one study, it has been shown to calm the body’s nervous system and reduce conflict and aggressive behavior. If your work involves collaborating with other people, you may find that applying lavender behind your eyes and on the nape of your neck throughout the day can be useful to help you navigate heated discussions or arguments and calmly work with other people to achieve those breakthrough ideas or solutions required by your boss or client.
