Despite the widespread use of personal fragrances and their assumed influence on social behavior, there has been little research documenting such influence. The goal of the proposed study was to provide such documentation, to understand the role fragrances play in determining social behavior.
The study had three components. The first was a data set describing people’s daily patterns of social interactions. The second consisted of descriptions of their perceptions of different fragrances, measures of their attitudes toward fragrance use, descriptions of their reasons for fragrance use, and summaries of their past and present use of personal fragrances. The third component consisted of various measures of individual differences in interpersonal style, psychological traits, and other factors.
These components were chosen to answer questions of interest in two broad categories: what are the relationships between fragrance use and perceptions and social behavior, and what are the relationships between fragrance use and perceptions and individual psychological differences?
