ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

The Sense of Smell: Shaping Behaviour, Emotion and Environments is a study aiming to shed new light on how scent influences hygiene perception, confidence and decision-making in public and commercial washrooms. 

Carried out by Matt Wonnacott of Ennovamark, the research brings together findings from psychology, facility management and environmental design.

Key findings include:

• Scent strongly influences hygiene perception - clean-coded scents such as citrus, herbal-green and light mineral improved perceived cleanliness by up to 40 per cent, even when cleaning routines were unchanged.

• Scent can reduce negative washroom feedback - sites using low-volume, continuous scent diffusion recorded an average of 22 percent fewer cleanliness complaints. Users reported higher confidence in maintenance, ventilation and air quality.

• Overly sweet or synthetic scents undermine trust - the study found that floral or heavy perfume-like scents often created suspicion that poor smells were being hidden. Clean-coded scents produced the highest trust scores.

• Scent influences behaviour around care and upkeep - when washrooms smelled clean, users were statistically less likely to litter, leave waste or behave carelessly. This suggests scent can support both user behaviour and staff workload.

• Cultural expectations matter - different regions associate different scent families with cleanliness. European users preferred citrus and mineral notes, while Asian markets responded more positively to green-tea and aloe profiles.

"Scent is one of the fastest ways users form an impression of cleanliness and care, especially in washrooms where hygiene expectations are high," said Wonnacott. "The goal of this study was to give the industry a clear, measured view of how scent influences behaviour and how small adjustments can improve the experience for staff and users in an array of disciplines and sectors with completely new data."

For more information on the full report: ennovamark.com/scent-and-behaviour-study