Aromas drive shopping splurges

A new study at the National University of Singapore has revealed that the aroma of a mouth-watering dessert can make a shopper splurge money on unnecessary purchases. The study suggests that exposure to something that stimulates the appetite can make a person more impulsive with unrelated purchases.

The study also found that an appetitive stimulus not only affects behaviour in a specific behaviour domain, but also induces a shared state that propels a consumer to choose smaller–sooner options in unrelated domains.