title: Positive implicit attitudes toward odor words.
abstract: Associations between certain odors and for instance health effects may lead to positive or negative attitudes toward these odors. However, in experiments we conducted using the Implicit Association Test (IAT), we encountered attitudes even to odor "words." The IAT is based on the principle that reaction times measuring the association between words from a target dimension (in this case, odor vs. a neutral reference category) and an attribute dimension (i.e., positive or negative words) reflect the attitude to the target, where attitude-congruent associations between target and attribute are reflected by shorter reaction times. In a first experiment, we found distinctly positive attitudes to the concept odor in a student sample, which was replicated in a second experiment. In the main experiment, subjects in the aromatherapy group, who prefer using scented consumer products for relaxation purposes, showed a significantly more positive attitude toward odor words in the IAT than a control group, who did not have such a preference. The fact that results from the implicit test were not always associated with explicitly stated attitudes toward the odor words attests to the fact that the IAT measures the attitude of interest in a different way. As such, the IAT has added value in circumstances where explicit tests can be biased.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, PO Box 80.140, 3508 TC Utrecht, the Netherlands. p.bulsing@uu.nl
authors.forename: Patricia J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Bulsing
authors.forename: Monique A M
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Smeets
authors.forename: Marcel A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: van den Hout
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009812:Odorants; D011930:Reaction Time; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D014936:Word Association Tests