Title: Music motivates impulse buyers, not thoughtful shoppers
Headings: Music motivates impulse buyers, not thoughtful shoppers
In Brief
Music motivates impulse buyers, not thoughtful shoppers

Content: Morrin and her collaborators enhanced the atmosphere of a suburban shopping mall in Canada over the course of a month. On different days, they played slow-tempo popular music, filled the mall with a citrus scent, played the music and emitted the scent, or left the mall's atmosphere un-enhanced. On each day, the researchers surveyed shoppers and asked if they had made unplanned purchases that day and how much they had spent. The shoppers--774 in all--also noted how much they enjoyed their shopping experience that day and whether items were easy to find in the mall. While the pleasant scent and music did not have any effect on the shoppers' reported moods, they did affect how much the shoppers spent. Shoppers who had made an unplanned purchase spent, on average, $32.89 more when music was playing than those in the control condition. When a scent was present, they spent about $8.66 less. Contemplative buyers spent about $1.00 less than usual when music played, but in the presence of the citrus smell, they spent $5.71 more than usual. Additionally, the contemplative shoppers in the presence of the citrus smell were more likely to note that they had an easy time finding what they were looking for in the mall. Past research by Morrin showed that pleasant scents can enhance cognition and cause people to better remember the details of products.