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Olfactory Cues of Restaurant Wait Staff Modulate Patrons’ Dining Experiences and Behavior

Ambient scents at retail stores have been found to modulate customer perceptions and attitudes toward retail products and stores. Although ambient scent effects have also been observed in restaurant settings, little is known about the scent-related influences of restaurant wait staff on patron perce...

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Autores principales: Singh, Asmita, Beekman, Thadeus L., Seo, Han-Seok
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6963510/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31779168
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods8120619
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author Singh, Asmita
Beekman, Thadeus L.
Seo, Han-Seok
author_facet Singh, Asmita
Beekman, Thadeus L.
Seo, Han-Seok
author_sort Singh, Asmita
collection PubMed
description Ambient scents at retail stores have been found to modulate customer perceptions and attitudes toward retail products and stores. Although ambient scent effects have also been observed in restaurant settings, little is known about the scent-related influences of restaurant wait staff on patron perception and behavior. This study aimed to determine whether olfactory cues from restaurant wait staff can affect patrons’ dining experiences and interpersonal behavior with respect to menu choice, flavor perception, overall liking of meal items, meal satisfaction, consumption amount, and tip amount for wait staff. A total of 213 adults with no olfactory impairments were asked to select and consume one of four chicken meat menu items: baked, broiled, fried, and smoked chicken, in a mock restaurant setting, under one of the three most likely scents of wait staff: congruent (smoky barbecue scent), fragrance (perfume scent), and no scent (control) applied to fabric aprons of wait staff. The results showed that menu choice and flavor perception of chicken meat items did not differ in the presence of the three scent conditions. The effects of wait staff scents on overall liking of chicken meat items, meal satisfaction, and tip amount for wait staff were found to differ as a function of patron gender. Female patrons gave higher ratings of overall liking and meal satisfaction under the fragrance scent condition than under the no scent condition, while male patrons showed no effect with respect to overall liking and an opposite result in the meal satisfaction. Female patrons gave larger tips to wait staff under the congruent scent condition than under the no scent condition, while male patrons exhibited no effect. Patrons also were found to consume chicken meat items the least under the congruent scent condition. In conclusion, this study provides new empirical evidence that wait staff scents at restaurants can affect patrons’ dining experiences and interpersonal behavior and that the effects of such scents vary as a function of patron gender.
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spelling pubmed-69635102020-01-30 Olfactory Cues of Restaurant Wait Staff Modulate Patrons’ Dining Experiences and Behavior Singh, Asmita Beekman, Thadeus L. Seo, Han-Seok Foods Article Ambient scents at retail stores have been found to modulate customer perceptions and attitudes toward retail products and stores. Although ambient scent effects have also been observed in restaurant settings, little is known about the scent-related influences of restaurant wait staff on patron perception and behavior. This study aimed to determine whether olfactory cues from restaurant wait staff can affect patrons’ dining experiences and interpersonal behavior with respect to menu choice, flavor perception, overall liking of meal items, meal satisfaction, consumption amount, and tip amount for wait staff. A total of 213 adults with no olfactory impairments were asked to select and consume one of four chicken meat menu items: baked, broiled, fried, and smoked chicken, in a mock restaurant setting, under one of the three most likely scents of wait staff: congruent (smoky barbecue scent), fragrance (perfume scent), and no scent (control) applied to fabric aprons of wait staff. The results showed that menu choice and flavor perception of chicken meat items did not differ in the presence of the three scent conditions. The effects of wait staff scents on overall liking of chicken meat items, meal satisfaction, and tip amount for wait staff were found to differ as a function of patron gender. Female patrons gave higher ratings of overall liking and meal satisfaction under the fragrance scent condition than under the no scent condition, while male patrons showed no effect with respect to overall liking and an opposite result in the meal satisfaction. Female patrons gave larger tips to wait staff under the congruent scent condition than under the no scent condition, while male patrons exhibited no effect. Patrons also were found to consume chicken meat items the least under the congruent scent condition. In conclusion, this study provides new empirical evidence that wait staff scents at restaurants can affect patrons’ dining experiences and interpersonal behavior and that the effects of such scents vary as a function of patron gender. MDPI 2019-11-26 /pmc/articles/PMC6963510/ /pubmed/31779168 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods8120619 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Singh, Asmita
Beekman, Thadeus L.
Seo, Han-Seok
Olfactory Cues of Restaurant Wait Staff Modulate Patrons’ Dining Experiences and Behavior
title Olfactory Cues of Restaurant Wait Staff Modulate Patrons’ Dining Experiences and Behavior
title_full Olfactory Cues of Restaurant Wait Staff Modulate Patrons’ Dining Experiences and Behavior
title_fullStr Olfactory Cues of Restaurant Wait Staff Modulate Patrons’ Dining Experiences and Behavior
title_full_unstemmed Olfactory Cues of Restaurant Wait Staff Modulate Patrons’ Dining Experiences and Behavior
title_short Olfactory Cues of Restaurant Wait Staff Modulate Patrons’ Dining Experiences and Behavior
title_sort olfactory cues of restaurant wait staff modulate patrons’ dining experiences and behavior
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6963510/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31779168
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods8120619
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