Calibrating 30 Years of Experimental Research: A Meta-Analysis of the Atmospheric Effects of Music, Scent, and Color

What the study found

Environments with music or scent present produced higher pleasure, satisfaction and behavioural intention ratings than environments without them. Warm colours produced more arousal than cool colours, and cool colours more satisfaction. Average effects were small to medium with significant between-study variance; scent-pleasure effects were larger in samples with more women, and music and scent effects tended to be stronger in service than retail settings.

Limitations

Shopping outcomes and ratings rather than health or physiology; high heterogeneity.

Neurodesign interpretation

The pooled evidence base for retail atmospherics, useful for checking claims about how stores steer customers.

Possible design implications

Music, scent and colour have measurable but modest effects on how people rate commercial spaces.

Study design

Meta-analysis

Population

66 studies, 135 effects. Sample: 15,621.

Setting

Retail and service settings

Field

Retail environments, Multisensory perception

Mechanism

Arousal + activation, atmospheric cues

Spatial variable

Scent / odor, background music, colour

Keywords

atmospherics, retail, music, scent, colour, meta-analysis

Notes and follow-up

Related records: ND-0166, ND-0144.