The influence of scent on virtual reality experiences: The role of aroma-content congruence

TLDR

Human experience is inherently multisensory, yet digital interactions largely rely on audiovisual cues, and VR offers a platform to integrate additional senses to enrich digital experiences. The study examines how adding ambient scent to VR influences pre-experience perceptions in tourism. The authors conducted a laboratory experiment in which VR experiences were paired with pleasant, congruent ambient scents to assess their impact on users' affective and behavioral responses. The experiment showed that VR combined with pleasant, congruent scents heightened sensory stimulation, directly and via imagination ease, boosting affective and behavioral responses and reinforcing the affective‑conative link to destinations, suggesting that congruent ambient scents can enhance VR experiences.

Abstract

We live in a multisensory world. Our experiences are constructed by the stimulation of all our senses. Nevertheless, digital interactions are mainly based on audiovisual elements, while other sensory stimuli have been less explored. Virtual reality (VR) is a sensory-enabling technology that facilitates the integration of sensory inputs to enhance multisensory digital experiences. This study analyzes how the addition of ambient scent to a VR experience affects digital pre-experiences in a service context (tourism). Results from a laboratory experiment confirmed that embodied VR devices, together with pleasant and congruent ambient scents, enhance sensory stimulation, which directly (and indirectly through ease of imagination) influence affective and behavioral reactions. These enriched multisensory experiences strengthen the link between the affective and conative images of destinations. We make recommendations for researchers and service providers with ambitions to deliver ambient scents, especially those congruent with displayed content, to enhance the sensorialization of digital VR experiences.