known to exist in other animals, but humans were thought to be lacking it. It’s so small that most anatomists simply overlooked it.
These discoveries have inspired numerous entrepreneurs to jump on the pheromone bandwagon, advertising pheromone-laced sprays that will, they claim, make their wearer irresistible to the opposite sex. It’s doubtful these work. But it’s not out of the realm of possibility that one day we might see genuine pheromone-based products on grocery-store shelves. We might even be able to buy “McClintock, the menstrual-cycle altering perfume.”
The Smell of Money
You’ve got a drink in your hand. You’re popping quarters into the slot-machine. The sound of falling coins rings in your ears. Money being won! Your adrenaline is pumping. And boy, something smells good!
In 1991 Dr. Alan Hirsch introduced two different odors, both rated as pleasant in prior preference studies, into different areas of the gaming floor of the Las Vegas Hilton. The odors were strong enough to be easily perceived, but were not overpowering. A third area he left odor-free. Odorization occurred over a period of forty-eight hours.
The results were startling. One of the odorized areas saw a 45 percent jump in the amount of money spent at the machines compared to the week before. The second odorized area and the odor-free zone saw no increases. The first odor appeared to have caused people to spend more money— a lot more money .
There were no pheromones in these odors. They were simply pleasant aromas. Also, Dr. Hirsch had no idea why the first odor, but not the second, caused the dramatic spike in gaming revenue. He had expected both to have some effect. Nevertheless, the gaming industry and retailers throughout the country immediately took notice. Easy money, they thought, never smelled so good. Pump in a few good scents and wait for the cash to roll in.
Rival researchers, however, criticized Hirsch’s work, complaining that he never identified the jackpot scent, making it impossible for them to evaluate his results. Consumer groups, on the other hand, decried the dawning of an era of manipulative smell technology.
Since the early 1990s researchers have continued to investigate the smell-sells phenomenon, but results have been ambiguous at best. Some studies show positive effects, whereas others show none. Marketing professors Paula Fitzgerald Bone and Pam Scholder Ellen, reviewing this research in a 1999 article, cautioned that “evidence is stacked against the proposition that the simple presence of an odor affects a retail customer’s behavior.” Such words of warning hardly dented the enthusiasm of retailers, who, if anything, have become even more excited about odor in recent years. Some businesses have gone so far as to develop signature scents. Samsung, for instance, fills its stores with a distinctive honeydew melon smell, and Westin hotels pump a white tea 14 fragrance into their lobbies. So the next time you’re in a store and you stop to smell the roses—or the melon, vanilla, cucumber, lavender, or citrus—remember that the business owner is hoping soon to be counting your cash.
Smell Illusions
Lift this book to your nose. Its pages have been coated with an odor-producing chemical. Can you smell it? If not, scratch a page to release the scent more fully. The aroma is pleasant and fruity. Can you smell it now? Yes? No?
Well, maybe not. The book contains no scratch-n-sniff odor. At least, it shouldn’t. Nevertheless, some readers may, through mere suggestion, have smelled something. Or believed they did.
Suggestion exerts a powerful influence over what we smell. Edwin Slosson, professor of chemistry at the University of Wyoming, demonstrated this in 1899 when he stood before his students and poured a vial of distilled water over a ball of cotton wool. The water, he told them, was a highly aromatic chemical. He asked them to raise their hands when they could smell it. Within fifteen seconds
These discoveries have inspired numerous entrepreneurs to jump on the pheromone bandwagon, advertising pheromone-laced sprays that will, they claim, make their wearer irresistible to the opposite sex. It’s doubtful these work. But it’s not out of the realm of possibility that one day we might see genuine pheromone-based products on grocery-store shelves. We might even be able to buy “McClintock, the menstrual-cycle altering perfume.”
The Smell of Money
You’ve got a drink in your hand. You’re popping quarters into the slot-machine. The sound of falling coins rings in your ears. Money being won! Your adrenaline is pumping. And boy, something smells good!
In 1991 Dr. Alan Hirsch introduced two different odors, both rated as pleasant in prior preference studies, into different areas of the gaming floor of the Las Vegas Hilton. The odors were strong enough to be easily perceived, but were not overpowering. A third area he left odor-free. Odorization occurred over a period of forty-eight hours.
The results were startling. One of the odorized areas saw a 45 percent jump in the amount of money spent at the machines compared to the week before. The second odorized area and the odor-free zone saw no increases. The first odor appeared to have caused people to spend more money— a lot more money .
There were no pheromones in these odors. They were simply pleasant aromas. Also, Dr. Hirsch had no idea why the first odor, but not the second, caused the dramatic spike in gaming revenue. He had expected both to have some effect. Nevertheless, the gaming industry and retailers throughout the country immediately took notice. Easy money, they thought, never smelled so good. Pump in a few good scents and wait for the cash to roll in.
Rival researchers, however, criticized Hirsch’s work, complaining that he never identified the jackpot scent, making it impossible for them to evaluate his results. Consumer groups, on the other hand, decried the dawning of an era of manipulative smell technology.
Since the early 1990s researchers have continued to investigate the smell-sells phenomenon, but results have been ambiguous at best. Some studies show positive effects, whereas others show none. Marketing professors Paula Fitzgerald Bone and Pam Scholder Ellen, reviewing this research in a 1999 article, cautioned that “evidence is stacked against the proposition that the simple presence of an odor affects a retail customer’s behavior.” Such words of warning hardly dented the enthusiasm of retailers, who, if anything, have become even more excited about odor in recent years. Some businesses have gone so far as to develop signature scents. Samsung, for instance, fills its stores with a distinctive honeydew melon smell, and Westin hotels pump a white tea 14 fragrance into their lobbies. So the next time you’re in a store and you stop to smell the roses—or the melon, vanilla, cucumber, lavender, or citrus—remember that the business owner is hoping soon to be counting your cash.
Smell Illusions
Lift this book to your nose. Its pages have been coated with an odor-producing chemical. Can you smell it? If not, scratch a page to release the scent more fully. The aroma is pleasant and fruity. Can you smell it now? Yes? No?
Well, maybe not. The book contains no scratch-n-sniff odor. At least, it shouldn’t. Nevertheless, some readers may, through mere suggestion, have smelled something. Or believed they did.
Suggestion exerts a powerful influence over what we smell. Edwin Slosson, professor of chemistry at the University of Wyoming, demonstrated this in 1899 when he stood before his students and poured a vial of distilled water over a ball of cotton wool. The water, he told them, was a highly aromatic chemical. He asked them to raise their hands when they could smell it. Within fifteen seconds
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