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How Semantically Labeled Scent-Gender Associations Influence the Evaluations of Scent and Texture

Sensory evaluation can be influenced by semantic information such as gender descriptions. Gender categories are associated with tactile information (e.g., female = soft/smooth, while male = hard/rough). Feminine scents (e.g., floral) are typically perceived as soft and smooth. Thus, semantic labels...

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Autores principales: Iseki, Sayo, Motoki, Kosuke, Sakata, Ryosuke, Kitagami, Shinji
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8566334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34744873
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.713329
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author Iseki, Sayo
Motoki, Kosuke
Sakata, Ryosuke
Kitagami, Shinji
author_facet Iseki, Sayo
Motoki, Kosuke
Sakata, Ryosuke
Kitagami, Shinji
author_sort Iseki, Sayo
collection PubMed
description Sensory evaluation can be influenced by semantic information such as gender descriptions. Gender categories are associated with tactile information (e.g., female = soft/smooth, while male = hard/rough). Feminine scents (e.g., floral) are typically perceived as soft and smooth. Thus, semantic labels of gender (feminine/masculine qualities) may influence congruent sensory evaluation (i.e., female = soft/smooth, male = hard/rough). This study examined how semantically labeled scent-gender associations influence the evaluation of scent and texture. Specifically, we examined whether “feminine” and “masculine” labels applied to neutral scents that have not been associated with gender influence scent and haptic evaluation. Participants sniffed a feminine-labeled or masculine-labeled scent embedded on soft and rough papers. They then evaluated the scent (e.g., gender perception) and texture (e.g., hedonic evaluation). The results demonstrated that participants who sniffed a feminine-labeled (vs. masculine-labeled) scent perceived it as more feminine. However, contrary to our expectations, gender labeling of scent did not influence haptic evaluation. These findings indicate that semantic labeling of scents (i.e., feminine/masculine) may alter the gender perception of a scent but not the tactile evaluation. Practical implications for (online) sensory marketing are discussed.
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spelling pubmed-85663342021-11-05 How Semantically Labeled Scent-Gender Associations Influence the Evaluations of Scent and Texture Iseki, Sayo Motoki, Kosuke Sakata, Ryosuke Kitagami, Shinji Front Psychol Psychology Sensory evaluation can be influenced by semantic information such as gender descriptions. Gender categories are associated with tactile information (e.g., female = soft/smooth, while male = hard/rough). Feminine scents (e.g., floral) are typically perceived as soft and smooth. Thus, semantic labels of gender (feminine/masculine qualities) may influence congruent sensory evaluation (i.e., female = soft/smooth, male = hard/rough). This study examined how semantically labeled scent-gender associations influence the evaluation of scent and texture. Specifically, we examined whether “feminine” and “masculine” labels applied to neutral scents that have not been associated with gender influence scent and haptic evaluation. Participants sniffed a feminine-labeled or masculine-labeled scent embedded on soft and rough papers. They then evaluated the scent (e.g., gender perception) and texture (e.g., hedonic evaluation). The results demonstrated that participants who sniffed a feminine-labeled (vs. masculine-labeled) scent perceived it as more feminine. However, contrary to our expectations, gender labeling of scent did not influence haptic evaluation. These findings indicate that semantic labeling of scents (i.e., feminine/masculine) may alter the gender perception of a scent but not the tactile evaluation. Practical implications for (online) sensory marketing are discussed. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-10-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8566334/ /pubmed/34744873 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.713329 Text en Copyright © 2021 Iseki, Motoki, Sakata and Kitagami. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Iseki, Sayo
Motoki, Kosuke
Sakata, Ryosuke
Kitagami, Shinji
How Semantically Labeled Scent-Gender Associations Influence the Evaluations of Scent and Texture
title How Semantically Labeled Scent-Gender Associations Influence the Evaluations of Scent and Texture
title_full How Semantically Labeled Scent-Gender Associations Influence the Evaluations of Scent and Texture
title_fullStr How Semantically Labeled Scent-Gender Associations Influence the Evaluations of Scent and Texture
title_full_unstemmed How Semantically Labeled Scent-Gender Associations Influence the Evaluations of Scent and Texture
title_short How Semantically Labeled Scent-Gender Associations Influence the Evaluations of Scent and Texture
title_sort how semantically labeled scent-gender associations influence the evaluations of scent and texture
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8566334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34744873
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.713329
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