Smelling Your Way to Satiety: Impact of Odor Satiation on Subsequent Consumption Related Behaviors

Marketers are increasingly using food related olfactory-cues to stimulate consumer interest and increase the sale of food and beverage items. In contrast to the industry wisdom, we show that being exposed to an odor of a food item (for e.g., odor of Popcorn) for a long duration reduces subsequent consumption behaviors related not only to food but also beverages, a notion we term as odor-satiety. Interestingly, our results suggest that while odor-satiety reduces subsequent consumption of food and drink it does not reduce the appetite (wanting) for more food and drink. Further, our findings show that odor-satiety enhances liking for the utilitarian items.