People seem to make fairer and more generous decisions when in clean smelling rooms.  A research project led by Katie Liljenquist, assistant professor of organizational leadership at BYU’s Marriott School of Management looked at the ethical decisions of two different groups of workers, one in an unscented room and the second group in a room that had been spritzed with lemon-scented Windex.  Each group was asked to perform two different task. In the first task, the room was given $12 and had to make a decision on how to split the money with an unseen partner in another room.  On average, those in the unscented room sent back $2.81 while those in in the clean-scented room gave back an average of $5.33.  In another task, participants were asked to indicate their willingness to participate in charitable activities.

· Participants surveyed in a Windex-ed room were significantly more interested in volunteering (4.21 on a 7-point scale) than those in a normal room (3.29).

· 22 percent of Windex-ed room participants said they’d like to donate money, compared to only 6 percent of those in a normal room.

Read more: Cleanliness IS next to godliness: new research shows clean smells unconsciously promote moral behavior