Scent across a crowded room: Exploring the effect of ambient scent on social interactions

Some service environments are specifically intended to foster interactions among the various individuals within the environment (e.g., a hotel conference room or lobby). This exploratory study examines how the physical environment affects the interactions among people within the environment, with the hope of identifying an easy, inexpensive way for service managers to differentiate their products from the competition. We also propose a new procedure for testing ambient factors. The results of the study show ambient scent having a significant, positive influence on the number of social interactions exhibited by the study's participants.