Short CommunicationTasting the smell: Effects of ambient scent on scent experts' evaluations of (in)congruent food products

- (Novice) scent experts perform better on the odor identification test than laymen.
- Scent experts are more aware of odors in their environment than laymen.
- (Novice) experts evaluate product incongruent with scent more negatively than laymen.
- Taste of incongruent product is evaluated more negatively when more aware of odors.
- Evaluation differences not fully explained by odor identification and awareness.

This research studies the effect of scent expertise (laymen vs. novice experts vs. experts) on product and taste evaluations of three products that are (in)congruent with an ambient scent and examines whether this effect is mediated by these groups' awareness of scents in their environment and by how well they are able to identify different scents. Results show that novice experts and experts evaluate an incongruent product less positively than laymen. Laymen score lower than novice experts and experts on odor identification, and lower than experts on odor awareness but not lower than novice experts. The differences in the evaluation between the scent expertise groups cannot be fully explained by differences in their level of odor identification or level of odor awareness.