Olfactory Influence on Social Trust: Examining the Role of Scent in Perception

Abstract

Olfactory cues can influence affective processing and social evaluation, yet their role in judgments of interpersonal trust remains comparatively underexplored, particularly in Filipino samples. This study examined whether ambient scent conditions influence perceived trustworthiness when individuals evaluate unfamiliar faces. A quantitative between-subjects experimental design involved 30 undergraduate criminology students aged 18 to 25 years. Participants were assigned in equal numbers to pleasant (lavender), neutral (distilled water), or unpleasant (vinegar) olfactory conditions. They viewed 20 standardized neutral facial images from the Chicago Face Database and rated each face on a seven-point trustworthiness scale. Participant-level trustworthiness scores were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance. The analysis indicated a significant difference in trustworthiness ratings across scent conditions, F(2, 27) = 8.23, p = .002, partial eta squared = .38. The pleasant condition produced higher trustworthiness ratings than the neutral and unpleasant conditions, whereas the latter two conditions did not differ significantly. The findings suggest that ambient olfactory context can contribute to judgments of unfamiliar faces, consistent with research on multisensory person perception and scent-related trust. The study provides preliminary experimental evidence from a Filipino undergraduate sample and supports replication using larger samples, stronger manipulation checks, and direct measures of the psychological mechanisms linking olfactory context with social evaluation.