Effect of context on fine fragrance-elicited emotions: Comparison of three experimental methodologies

Abstract

The European Sensory Network organized an interactive workshop at the 13th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, which took place in Edinburgh (Scotland) in July 2019. The aim of the workshop was twofold. First, three different methodological approaches for measuring emotional responses elicited by fine fragrances were compared: biometric, semantic priming, and implicit reaction time. Second, the role of context on the fragrance experience and elicited emotional responses was investigated by showing videos (fragrance advertisements). This Pangborn workshop was interactive and the results of the third measurement were collected from the audience. The results showed that although the semantic priming method proved to be poorly discriminating, the implicit reaction time measurement highlighted a strong effect of advertisements on elicited feelings. Nomade perfume, which was associated with comforted feelings in the blind condition, became associated with adventurous feelings when it was smelled with its advertisement. Biometric measurements provided limited additional output on the elicited feelings, but clearly showed temporal differences, especially when the advertisement was shown to the participants. Interestingly, despite the different target groups of the experiments (i.e., France, USA, Pangborn international audience) and different experimental procedures, the results of the three methods showed similar findings on the two tested perfumes, with Pop perfume being preferred and eliciting more positive emotional responses than Nomade perfume.