Two experiments suggest smells can bias what people paint, which colors they use, and what they pick to depict.

In a new journal article, specific odors reliably lined up with specific colors and painting impressions. Strawberry odor tended to pull people toward warmer, lighter, more positive work, while rose odor leaned cooler in color associations. Odors also appeared to steer what object people chose to paint when objects were available.

Quick summary

• What the study found: Strawberry odor was associated with yellow and orange and produced paintings rated lighter, warmer, and more positive; rose odor was associated with green and blue, and exposure influenced object choice toward odor-matching items.
• Why it matters: Smell may nudge visual perception and choices, not just mood, with practical implications for art-making, design, and environments where selection matters.
• What to be careful about: Visual context can override or reshape odor effects, and results come from only two odors and the specific tasks used here.

What was found

The research combined psychology and art to test whether strawberry and rose odors shape visual perception, artistic expression, creativity, and object selection.

In Study 1, participants painted while exposed to either a rose odor or a strawberry odor. Other participants then evaluated the paintings using semantic differential scales, and a separate group rated the odors using the same scales.

The results showed distinct odor-color links: strawberry odor was associated with yellow and orange, while rose odor was associated with green and blue. Paintings made under strawberry odor were rated as lighter, warmer, and more positive.

What it means

These findings support the idea that smell and vision interact, with odors mapping onto color impressions and emotional tone. In plain terms, scent can act like a “background cue” that biases what looks fitting or appealing.

The study’s factor analysis yielded two dimensions for painting evaluations: Affective Dimensionality and Perceptual Valence and Complexity. This differs from Osgood’s classical semantic differential model, which proposes three universal dimensions.

Where it fits

Smell is closely tied to emotion and memory, so it is plausible that odors can amplify or tilt how people experience what they see. The journal article Painting with odors: How olfactory stimuli influence artistic expression, emotional response, visual perception, and object selection adds controlled, task-based evidence for that multisensory link.

It also hints at a pathway from perception to behavior: not only “this feels warm,” but “I’ll choose the thing that fits the smell.” That matters because many real decisions rely on quick matching, not deliberation.

How to use it

If you design creative spaces, consider scent as a subtle constraint or catalyst. A sweet, fruity odor may bias toward warmer palettes and more positive impressions, while a floral odor may pull choices in a different direction.

For educators and artists, this suggests a simple intervention: change the ambient odor when you want to shift palette exploration or emotional tone. For product or experience design, scent could steer selection toward “conceptually aligned” options when choices are presented.

Limits & what we still don’t know

Study 2 showed that object availability can modulate outcomes. Rose exposure led to more green in paintings in Study 1, yet in Study 2 participants often associated rose with white and painted a white rose, likely shaped by the visible white rose on the table.

Only two odors were tested here, and the tasks were specific to painting, rating, and selecting from provided objects. The journal article does not establish how durable these effects are, or how they generalize to other odors and settings.

Closing takeaway

In these experiments, odors did not just “set a mood.” They tracked with specific colors and appeared to steer what people chose to depict, while visual context still had the power to redirect the effect.

Data in this article is provided by PLOS.

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