The scent of lavender makes people spend more money

A collaborative study by two French behavioral scientists, just published in the new issue of The International Journal of Hospitality Management, finds that customers spend more money in a restaurant scented with lavender.

The scientists used "electronic fragrance diffusers" to scent a small pizzeria in Brittany with lemon one Saturday night, lavender on another, and used no scent on a third.

Nicolas Guéguen of the University of South Brittany and Christine Petr of the University of Rennes, the authors of the paper, wrote, "Results showed that lavender — but not lemon aroma — increased the... amount of purchasing."

The authors suggested that lavender's "relaxing effect" may explain the difference.

But there's also a dark side to their data: customers lingered longer, an average of 15 minutes, when lavender was in the air.

The authors of the Human Flower Project, a blog I came upon while researching this post, suggest that the tendency in the U.S. to try and turn tables over as fast as possible would probably negate any financial benefit that might accrue from a party's lingering one zeptosecond longer than necessary.

Human Flower Project is a wonderful name for a blog/website.

Here's a secret: out back in the skunk works I've got my black ops team working 24/7 on a project that, if successful, will result in a small, almost imperceptible release of lavender the moment my blog opens up on your computer.

Stay tuned.

You never read — or smelled — this.