Journal
ACM TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTER-HUMAN INTERACTION
Volume 29, Issue 6, Pages -Publisher
ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY
DOI: 10.1145/3526950
Keywords
Smell; emotions; memories; body image; scents; cultural probes; body awareness; field study
Funding
- European Research Council - ERC under the European Union [638605]
- European Research Council (ERC) [638605] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)
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Previous research has primarily focused on the influence of smell on emotions, memories, and body image in laboratory settings. This article presents new insights gained from a field study that investigates the emotional effect of smell on memories and body image in real-world environments. The findings indicate similar results among participants based on different scents, highlighting the potential for designing multisensory experiences beyond the traditional laboratory boundaries.
Previous research has shown the influence of smell on emotions, memories, and body image. However, most of this work has taken place in laboratory settings and little is known about the influence of smell in real-world environments. In this article, we present novel insights gained from a field study investigating the emotional effect of smell on memories and body image. Taking inspiration from the cultural design probes approach, we designed QuintEssence, a probe package that includes three scents and materials to complete three tasks over a period of four weeks. Here, we describe the design of QuintEssence and the main findings based on the outcomes of the three tasks and a final individual interview. The findings show similar results between participants based on the scent. For example, with cinnamon, participants experienced feelings ofwarmth, coziness, happiness, and relaxation; they recalled blurred memories of past moments about themselves and reported a general feeling of being calm and peaceful towards their bodies. Our findings open up new design spaces for multisensory experiences and inspire future qualitative explorations beyond laboratory boundaries.
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