The Observatories

Tuesday – Psychological Stimulus – Clove Oil (room 2)

One of the main ingredients of Clove Oil is Eugenol, commonly used in dental practices. Robin et al. (1999) discovered that people who have a memory of some form of dental surgery found this smell to be offensive, while people that hadn’t found it clinical and pleasant – perhaps reminding them of Christmas!

Result
Unlike the other fragrances, around 10% of the participant’s general mood was happier after the experience. We didn’t question anyone on previous dental work (that would have been too odd, and a bit personal), but a higher than average number of people selected this room as their most positive (we calculated this after taking away the control percentage that would usually pick room 1).