Certain cleaning products with pleasant smells may leave you with more than a spotless home—they may also leave you with a squeaky-clean conscience. Pleasant smells may actually promote honesty, based on two experiments from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Former studies have shown that using cleaning products with citrus scents can help motivate cleaning-related tasks as well as keeping a cleaner dining environment. In much the same way, cleanliness is associated with physical purity and moral purity.

“By demonstrating that the association between morality and cleanliness is bidirectional, the current research identifies an unobtrusive way—a clean scent—to curb exploitation and promote altruism,” authors wrote.

The first experiment was a trust game designed to test integrity. Twenty-eight participants were assigned to either a scented (with citrus Windex) or an unscented room. For the game, participants acted as receivers. The senders, who they believed to be other study participants in another room, invested $4.

Research assistants told the receivers that the investment had tripled, and it was up to the receiver to decide how the money should be split. They could decide to say the investment was unsuccessful and keep a portion or the entire amount, or they could choose not to exploit the sender and split the money fairly.

Individuals from the scented rooms acted more honestly than those from unscented rooms. They returned almost twice the amount of cash, an average of $5.33 versus $2.81 for individuals from unscented rooms.

In a second experiment with 99 undergraduate students, participants were again assigned randomly to scented or unscented rooms. This time participants were given a packet of unrelated tasks to work on, one of which was for Habitat for Humanity. Participants indicated interest in volunteering as well as donating money to the charitable organization.

To control for variations in mood, participants took a version of the PANAS (Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule) test. In addition to showing more interest in volunteering, the experimental group was also 16 percent more willing to donate than baseline counterparts.

“The link from cleanliness to virtuous behavior appears to be a nonconscious one,” authors write. “In neither experiment did participants recognize an influence of scent on their behavior, and in Experiment 2, perceived cleanliness did not differ by condition nor correlate with the effects."

Much of the effect depends on whether or not the smell is pleasing to the individual. Researchers want to further investigate the different effects scents have on a person's moral behavior.

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