NATURE SCENTS AND OFFICE PRODUCTIVITY

Measuring Productivity Measures in Office Employees with and without Nature scents (Part 2)

Co-Authors: Jay Maddock, Marco Palma, Suma Katabuttani | Advisor: Jay Maddock, Marco Palma

PROBLEM STATEMENT

While nature-inspired design elements like greenery and natural light are known to enhance workplace well-being, the role of scent in office performance remains underexplored. Can natural scents, such as those found in forests or fresh botanicals, influence cognitive function, stress levels, and ethical decision-making? This study investigates how exposure to nature-based scents affects employees’ productivity, emotional responses, and ethical choices in a controlled office-like environment.
The foundation for this study is that even tho nature can be experienced in multiple ways, a large amount of the literature relating to nature focuses on visual stimuli. In the pursuit of exploring a 2nd stimulus of nature, one of the predominant other senses explores the aroma in the immediate environment and the resulting implications.

This is also not a new concept. Some aging centers and mental health institutions use this concept called SSG, which benefits people with orientation and, more importantly, patients with visual or hearing impairments and helps provide a sense of belonging.

The literature highlights the role of scents in shaping cognitive and affective processes. However, there is a gap in the literature. scents are so expansive. and although the general premise is that scents promote well-being, it is highly important to remember that there are multiple categories of scents: Not every fragrance is beneficial for cognitive improvement, and not everyone as a preference for scents. The stimulus needs to be balanced because some scents are beneficial, but others are considered a nuisance, and some people are allergic to them. So, both in cases of controlled studies like this and in real-life applications, some extra steps needed to be taken to ensure that participants don’t experience any negative effects.

User Study Research Process

•A between-subject experiment (Control condition without any nature scents and an experimental condition with nature scents).

•Participants were assigned to one condition randomly (Control or scents).

•Programming 6 validated computer games to measure outcomes (same as part 1).

•Incorporating a 5-minute break in between games for revitalization/ to maximize the effects of the primary stimuli.

Note:
🌿 Nature Scent Condition – The workspace was infused with subtle, natural scents like pine or lavender.
🚫 No Scent (Control Condition) – A standard office environment with no additional olfactory stimuli.

Participants engaged in cognitive and ethical decision-making tasks while we recorded blink rates, facial expressions, and self-reported stress levels to measure their emotional and physiological responses.

Research Outcomes and Methods

The study examined how nature views influence:
✅ Cognitive Performance – Attention, memory recall, and problem-solving abilities.
✅ Workplace Ethics – Risk-taking behavior and cheating tendencies.
✅ Emotional Engagement – Stress levels, mood, and overall job satisfaction.

iMotions Emotions Capture (Metrics: Stress, Anxiety, Happiness, Anger, etc.,)

Key Findings

🍃 Scents Reduce Stress & Anxiety: Participants in the nature scent condition had significantly lower blink rates, indicating reduced stress and cognitive fatigue.
🧠 Improved Focus & Memory Recall: Exposure to nature scents enhanced concentration and boosted memory retention in complex tasks.
⚖️ Ethical Behavior Shift: Those in the scented environment exhibited lower risk-taking tendencies and were less likely to engage in dishonest behavior compared to the control group.
😀 Positive Emotional Engagement: Facial expression analysis showed higher relaxation and joy among participants exposed to nature scents.

Novel Finding

In this chart, we can see that as the session progresses, the blink rates for the control group are higher than the scents group, except for the 2nd game again. Letter ID. Probably for the same reason that people were looking at the screen closely. But it picks up from Game 3 and keeps that steady pattern although it drops down in the scents group in Game 6 indicating a drop in fatigue. So, the result of the MWU Test here between these 2 conditions only shows significance in Ravens – game 4 and game 6. The blink rate for the scents is still significantly lower than the control especially for game 1, once again telling us that scents of nature also may reduce anxiety in participants while still showing no differences in performance, while reducing anxiety during reasoning and cheating.

Note: A sub chapter comparing all 4 conditions was also carried out, to understand the holistic effects of both/singlular effects of nature stimuli, and can be found in the slide deck below.

Slide Deck

Back to Part 1: Nature Views

Conference Presentation (Views vs. Scents)

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