Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Clubbers Can Smell a Good Nightspot


ScienceDaily (May 17, 2011) — Since the smoking ban in restaurants, bars and nightclubs, customers are more aware of unpleasant smells, such as body odors and the smell of old beer, that used to be masked by cigarette smoke. Now science is looking at how the introduction of pleasant ambient scents that hide unwanted odors might enhance the nightlife experience. According to Dr. Hendrik Schifferstein from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and his colleagues, carefully selected fragrances can enhance dancing activity, improve the overall perception of the evening, and improve how nightclub goers rate the music as well as their mood.

I remember when they started controlling the smells in the supermarkets to make you hungry and so buy more stuff spontaneously. Well now that we've lost the smell of stale tobacco from nightclubs they're going to do the same thing there so we buy more drinks.
In another cool experiment some Dutch researchers used 'environmental fragrancing ' in a nightclub and firstly observed how much people were dancing and then asked how much they were enjoying themselves. Surprise surprise, the nicer the place smelt the more people enjoyed themselves and the more they danced!

"The three scents tested were orange, seawater, and peppermint. These scents were shown to enhance dancing activity and to improve the evaluation of the evening, the evaluation of the music, and the mood of the visitors over no added scent. However, no significant differences were found between the three scents."

What I love about this one is the fact these Dutch researchers came up with a study which meant they had to go out to nightclubs, watch girls dance and then have a great excuse to go up and chat with them. "Oh I'm actually here doing some research". Got to love those Dutch.

Read their paper in full here:

12 comments:

  1. "hey baby, i'd like to do some research, if you know what i mean" now that's a great chat up line!

    anyway, interesting stuff and i admit, i'd rather hit a club that smells like roses than one that smells like piss.

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  2. I am normally to drunk to notice smells in clubs and if I am not all i seem to be able to smell is girls perfume. haha

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  3. Oh, those dutch people :) What will they research next!

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  4. I hope they come up with something soon, I didn't like the smell of the cigarrette smoke but now it's even worse.

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  5. wow thats incredible how what you smell does really influence your behaviour. haha better to smell orange scent than dirty sweat

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  6. Thats some interesting but weird research ahah.

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  7. I shall now write a thesis paper and get a government grant to study this in the US!

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  8. It's in interesting observation that makes sense. Makes me want to see what the Dutch have to offer for nightlife.

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  9. ....and still no cure for cancer.

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  10. The point is cigarette smoke is important!!
    And of course beer scent too!!

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