How does Congruence of Scent and Music Affect People's Emotions

Abstract

It is widely believed that there is a relationship between scent and music. For example, there is congruence among certain scent, music, and consumers' buying behaviors according to previous study. However, only limited number of scents and music have been analyzed, which is not sufficient to conclude common characteristics of congruence between scent and music in arousal dimension. Consequently, we investigated the effect of scent on the mood evaluation of music by using four kinds of scents and two music samples. Overall, our results showed the arousal quality of scent would effectively modify the perceived arousal level of music, and scent which was congruent with music on arousal could also increase the affirmation of music. These results therefore underline the potential of scent to enhance listening experience, and those working in the music industry may feel progressively further optimistic in adopting appropriate scent to achieve advanced listening experience.

Investigation of Main Effect of Scent in Cross-modal Association between Music and Scent

“…Thus, the result of the present study supports the findings of these previous studies. Additionally, a similar trend of change in the mean value in Preference and Combination was observed as same as the result of a previous study [19]. However, unexpectedly, the higher points of the good combinations were found in incongruent conditions: condition 2 with low arousal music and high arousal scent, and condition 3 with high arousal music and low arousal scent.…”

“…The reason why the higher points were obtained in conditions 2 and 3 is difficult to explain, and there must be a complicated relationship between music and scent. For example, although Zhou et al had a careful preliminary experiment for selecting scents, inverted trends on impression were observed in the two arousal scents for one music piece [19]. A recent study has tried to extract common dimensions on the impression of different type of stimuli including music and scent [23].…”

“…In general, Chamomile-Roman has the effect of sedative, in contrast, Peppermint has the effect of arousal, and they were used in the previous study [15]. Additionally, Peppermint was used as a high-arousal or excitative scent in previous studies [18,19].…”

“…Significant differences were observed only pairs of conditions having different music piece, and there was a possibility that two scents used in the previous study might have a similar effect. Zhou et al have investigated the cross-modal effect by employing different tempi of the same music piece and various scents [19]. The interesting results including increase in preference of higher arousal music by adding high arousal scent were observed.…”

Effects of Scent and Music on Moods and Stress in the Confined Resting Area

“…It was revealed that the congruent combination of scent and music in terms of arousal significantly raise consumers' satisfaction of the retail store, and booster impulse buying behaviors [6]. Similarly, arousal congruent combination of scent and music is claimed to enhance the experience of music appreciation [7]. In addition, it was reported that the scent of orange sweet generates positive influence on sound sleep, and refreshed wakeup among aged females [8].…”