Cleanliness is next to godliness: New research shows clean smells promote moral behavior

October 24, 2009
Cleanliness is next to godliness: New research shows clean smells promote moral behavior

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People in rooms freshly spritzed with Windex were more fair and generous than people in normal-smelling rooms. Credit: Jaren Wilkey / BYU

People are unconsciously fairer and more generous when they are in clean-smelling environments, according to a soon-to-be published study led by a Brigham Young University professor.

The research found a dramatic improvement in ethical behavior with just a few spritzes of citrus-scented Windex.

Katie Liljenquist, assistant professor of organizational leadership at BYU's Marriott School of Management, is the lead author on the piece in a forthcoming issue of . Co-authors are Chen-Bo Zhong of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management and Adam Galinsky of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

The researchers see implications for workplaces, retail stores and other organizations that have relied on traditional surveillance and security measures to enforce rules.

"Companies often employ heavy-handed interventions to regulate conduct, but they can be costly or oppressive," said Liljenquist, whose office smells quite average. "This is a very simple, unobtrusive way to promote ethical behavior."

Perhaps the findings could be applied at home, too, Liljenquist said with a smile. "Could be that getting our kids to clean up their rooms might help them clean up their acts, too."

The study titled "The Smell of Virtue" was unusually simple and conclusive. Participants engaged in several tasks, the only difference being that some worked in unscented rooms, while others worked in rooms freshly spritzed with Windex.

The first experiment evaluated fairness. As a test of whether clean scents would enhance reciprocity, participants played a classic "trust game." Subjects received $12 of real money (allegedly sent by an anonymous partner in another room). They had to decide how much of it to either keep or return to their partners who had trusted them to divide it fairly. Subjects in clean-scented rooms were less likely to exploit the trust of their partners, returning a significantly higher share of the money.

• The average amount of cash given back by the people in the "normal" room was $2.81. But the people in the clean-scented room gave back an average of $5.33.

The second experiment evaluated whether clean scents would encourage charitable behavior. Subjects indicated their interest in volunteering with a campus organization for a Habitat for Humanity service project and their interest in donating funds to the cause.

• Participants surveyed in a Windex-ed room were significantly more interested in volunteering (4.21 on a 7-point scale) than those in a normal room (3.29).

• 22 percent of Windex-ed room participants said they'd like to donate money, compared to only 6 percent of those in a normal room.

Follow-up questions confirmed that participants didn't notice the in the room and that their mood at the time of the experiment didn't affect the outcomes.

"Basically, our study shows that morality and cleanliness can go hand-in-hand," said Galinsky of the Kellogg School. "Researchers have known for years that scents play an active role in reviving positive or negative experiences. Now, our research can offer more insight into the links between people's charitable actions and their surroundings."

While this study examined the influence of the physical environment on morality, Zhong and Liljenquist previously published work that demonstrated an intimate link between morality and physical cleanliness. Their 2006 paper in Science reported that transgressions activated a desire to be physically cleansed.

Liljenquist is now researching how perceptions of cleanliness shape our impressions of people and organizations. "The data tell a compelling story about how much we rely upon cleanliness cues to make a wide range of judgments about others," she said.

Source: Brigham Young University (news : web)

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acarrilho
Oct 24, 2009

Rank: 1 / 5 (4)
What's surprising in having people behave better in a pleasurable environment? Do we really need a study telling us a pleasant smell will make us feel better, which in turn influences our attitude towards others? Seems like yet another waste of research money to me.
magpies
Oct 24, 2009

Rank: not rated yet
Research money can never be waisted...
NonRational
Oct 24, 2009

Rank: 5 / 5 (3)
What's surprising in having people behave better in a pleasurable environment? Do we really need a study telling us a pleasant smell will make us feel better, which in turn influences our attitude towards others? Seems like yet another waste of research money to me.


How annoying. Armchair quarterbacks calling the shots. Data is essential to backing up hypotheses which are often just left at a philosophical test. Data will let us quantify how much more ethical people can be. Try to philosophize that.
Birthmark
Oct 24, 2009

Rank: not rated yet
Hope you don't live near a sewage plant ^^ It may make you immoral.
otto1923
Oct 24, 2009

Rank: 1 / 5 (3)
So when somebody is unfair to you and you say 'you stink' in response, that admonition actually has a subconscious causal root? Curious. Also, another reason to ban smoking. Seriously. Remember that scene in 'Wall Street' where michael Douglas takes a heavy hit off his smoke and says 'Greed is good'? So- tobacco ruins the brain AND corrupts you morally, eh? The first women to smoke in Britain were typically hookers.
otto1923
Oct 24, 2009

Rank: 1 / 5 (3)
Those piles of smoker droppings at stop signs and in the curb- what could be dirtier? Smokers lungs filled with soot and grease; they can feel this. They compensate for this inner filth with compulsive behaviors- rubbernecking, overspending, lying, cheating. Some gamble, steal, assault. Clean up the air, clean up society. I like it.
perchecreek
Oct 25, 2009

Rank: not rated yet
Studies show that women who dress provocatively induce aberrant behavior in potential rapists. Conservatism in dress, conversely, also produces more ethical behavior. Was the study done at Liberty University? No wait, I believe it was a group of researchers at a Saudi financed madrassa in Waziristan that broke ground on this frontier of moral science.
acarrilho
Oct 25, 2009

Rank: not rated yet
What's surprising in having people behave better in a pleasurable environment? Do we really need a study telling us a pleasant smell will make us feel better, which in turn influences our attitude towards others? Seems like yet another waste of research money to me.


How annoying. Armchair quarterbacks calling the shots. Data is essential to backing up hypotheses which are often just left at a philosophical test. Data will let us quantify how much more ethical people can be. Try to philosophize that.


There's obviously a personal limit to what needs to be hypothesized. I prioritize research money, you obviously don't. And is "armchair quarterback" a typical internet tough guy expression?
Thadieus
Oct 25, 2009

Rank: not rated yet
This may explain all the graffeti in the bathrooms.
BetterByDesign
Oct 25, 2009

Rank: 3 / 5 (2)
The Old Testament emphasizes on cleanliness. Perhaps science is closer to explaining that this is correct (perhaps only one of many variables leading to moral behavior).
otto1923
Oct 25, 2009

Rank: not rated yet
The bible is all about the unique human biological condition- and what has been done to countermand it. Things tend to get dirty when the village gets crowded. Politeness and altruism go out the window, selfishness and pathology set in. Time to burn Sodom, let the Remnants start over; always a little more reserved, a little more resolute. And cleaner.
Rank 4.5 /5 (11 votes)
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