The effects of incidental scents in the evaluation of environmental goods: The role of congruity.
We investigated whether pleasant ambient scents influence hypothetical and real money contributions toward environmental goods. We hypothesized that they would increase such contributions more when they were congruent with the target goods than when they were incongruent or when no scent was released. The results supported this congruity hypothesis. We offer a mental accessibility account: Pleasant scents that are congruent with a target good make positive information about that good more accessible and thus promote prosocial behavior.
Department of Economics and Management, University of Trento, Trento, Italy.
Nicolao
N
Bonini
Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Trento, Italy.
Michele
M
Graffeo
Department of Economics and Management, University of Trento, Trento, Italy.
Constantinos
C
Hadjichristidis
Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Trento, Italy.|Autonomous Province of Trento, Department of Knowledge, Trento, Italy.
Valentina
V
Perrotta
D001519:Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009812:Odorants; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*
ambient scents; mood; nudge; public goods; semantic congruity