Human Flower Project

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Under Lavender’s Spell

A new study reveals that lavender induces restaurant diners to spend more, linger longer.

Photo: La Scarola (Chicago)
with lavender appointments by HFP

If you’re a waitperson, you might try spritzing on some lavender oil before tying on your white apron this evening.

A collaborative study by two French behavioral scientists, published in the latest issue of The International Journal of Hospitality Management, finds that customers stayed longer and ran up higher tabs in a restaurant scented with lavender.
(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) of the University of South Brittany was kind enough to send us proofs of the paper he wrote with Christine Petr, University of Rennes,  an account of their experiment with the effects of lavender and lemon scents on restaurant diners.

With “electronic fragrance diffusers,” they scented a small Brittany pizzeria with lemon on one Saturday night, lavender another Saturday, and no scent on a third Saturday evening. “Results showed that lavender—but not lemon aroma—increased the length of stay of customers and the amount of purchasing.” Gueguen and Petr suggest that lavender’s “relaxing effect”  may explain the difference. Less watch checking and wallet clutching.

Of additional interest here, the scholars include a summary of earlier scent studies: the smell of peppermint improves gripping and running but not free-throw shooting, for example. And 50% of customers prefer “narcissus scented socks.” (That seems extremely low.) Gueguen also showed that people will more readily pick up a lady’s glove if she’s wearing perfume.

It strikes me that this experiment would only have been devised by social scientists in France.  Restaurateurs in the U.S. clearly want customers to spend more, but I’m not so sure they’d trade longer meals even for higher tabs; they seem intent on turning the tables as many times as possible in a night. U.S. waiters and waitresses are known to deliver the check along with the meal, and as you’re enjoying a lively conversation with friends, will walk to your table, point down at your plate and ask, “You still working on that?”

What fragrance could possibly account for this behavior? More to the point, what scent could put an end to it?

Thank you, professors Gueguen and Petr. Perhaps your next study could be of differences in American and French ideas of “hospitality.”