Clean Smells Promote Ethical Behavior 250
Posted
by
ScuttleMonkey
from the criminals-just-need-a-bath dept.
from the criminals-just-need-a-bath dept.
A recent study is suggesting that moral behavior may be encouraged with nothing more than clean smells. The Brigham Young University professor found a "dramatic improvement in ethical behavior with just a few spritzes of citrus-scented Windex." "The researchers see implications for workplaces, retail stores and other organizations that have relied on traditional surveillance and security measures to enforce rules. Perhaps the findings could be applied at home, too, Liljenquist said with a smile. 'Could be that getting our kids to clean up their rooms might help them clean up their acts, too.' The study titled "The Smell of Virtue" was unusually simple and conclusive. Participants engaged in several tasks, the only difference being that some worked in unscented rooms, while others worked in rooms freshly spritzed with Windex."
Re:junk science (Score:2, Informative)
So in order to have a control group you have to have two non-control groups? You didn't add a control group to their study, you added a non-control group.
Re:junk science (Score:5, Informative)
There's no link to the original study, but it was clear from the article that there was no control group. They had a scented room vs. an unscented room, when what they should have had was a "pleasantly" scented room vs. an "unpleasantly" scented room with a third, unscented room as the control. Then they should have done some feedback questionnaires at the conclusion, in which they could have buried a question or two regarding the participant's scent preferences to see how well the participants' evaluation of the smell of the rooms lined-up with the premise of the study.
This study was actually just a subset of the premise that happy people are more likely to be grateful and donate their time and/or money than unhappy people, and that environmental factors can influence a person's relative happiness. And a demonstration that an attractive woman can get money and resources from a major university to run a useless study.
So you're supposing that the mere scenting of a room, with any scent whatsoever, will increase the chance of ethical behavior? Interesting. Sounds like you need to do a follow-on study, rather than bash the first one without having read the original manuscript. According to the article, they *did* have a feedback questionnaire, and the participants did not notice the scent. More importantly, however, we do not know from the article whether this was a double blind study. The devil is in the details for behavioral studies like this, and an easy way to eliminate many uncontrolled variables is to make it double blind.
Finally, it is rather presumptuous to state that BYU funded the research, especially given the list of three total collaborators come from three different universities. Also, I've personally filled out scores of grant applications from my local institution, private foundations, and national agencies. None of them required or even requested a photograph. I'm therefore highly dubious about your last conclusion.
Hawthorne Effect (Score:3, Informative)
Re:RTFA! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:RTFA! (Score:3, Informative)
Don't get confused between groups. The settlers are generally dati le'umi (literally "religious nationalist"), they aren't charedi (ultra-orthodox). While some of the settlers are charedi that's not most of them. The settlers are people who would be by and large appalled by this behavior as everyone else. The ultra-orthodox aren't in favor generally of settling in that way; most of them don't even recognize the state of Israel.
Essentially, the settlers are a subfraction of what would be considered moderate or modern Orthodox except for the whole theological nationalism thing going on. The situation is complicated. It really isn't helped by conflating all the different groups together. It may be fun to get angry at the religious extremists but it is helpful to keep track of which extremists are which.