THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 14, 1996 TAG: 9610140041
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: 57 lines
Social psychologists have demonstrated something we all knew, anyway - but hadn't bothered to spell out: that in places with pleasant aromas, people tend to be kinder to one another.
In Crossgates Mall in upstate New York, The Associated Press reports, shoppers encountered teen-agers requesting change for a dollar or asking what time it was or dropping pens at their feet.
Little did the consumers reck that they were being treated like so many white mice in a laboratory through carefully controlled psychological experiments.
In areas of the mall suffused by the enticing fragrances of coffee roasting or cookies baking, the subjects were polite and amiable in complying with the young folk - stooping to pick up the pens, glancing at their watches for the time of day, counting out change.
But upon requests in similar locales bereft of good smells, the customers were not nearly as forthcoming with kind deeds. In fact, under the olfactory influence of heady aromas, they were twice as likely to be benign in responding.
In a paper to be published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Robert Baron notes: ``The effects of pleasant fragrances on social behavior stem, at least in part, from fragrance-induced increments in positive effect.''
``There's nothing magical about it,'' Baron said. ``When you put people in a good mood . . . they become more helpful.''
Women have known this ever since Eve.
They put on the coffee pot or fill a house with irises or roses or white lemon-scented magnolia blooms that tend to make us carefree as children.
The opposite also is true, notes Fred Anderson of the University of Missouri. Such minor irritants as noxious odors, annoying noises or extremely hot surroundings can put people in aggressive moods.
Baron has invested in a device combining an air filter, white noise generator, and fragrance producer to reduce the stress of living in dormitories and other close quarters. People can scent them with citrus, flora and fresh air.
It reminds me of the big red coffee grinder that used to function near cash registers of the A&P store. (Why the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co. dropped that all-embracing title in favor of Super Fresh is beyond me.)
Once, as I waited at a checkout counter, a little old lady with bright blue eyes paused at the whirring coffee grinder and, smiling, asked me, ``May I smell your coffee?''
``Of course, you may, ma'am,'' I said, ``and so that I may further cherish this moment will you please do me the favor of accepting that bag of coffee to carry home with you?''
That's what an aroma can do. ILLUSTRATION: Women have known this ever since Eve. They put on the
coffee pot or fill a house with irises or roses or white
lemon-scented magnolia blooms. by CNB