How the consumer estimates quality by subconscious sensory impressions

Abstract

A test set of four pairs of identical women's silk hose, packed in identical boxes, but with each of three pairs of them given a very faint scent of about the same intensity (but of different qual ty) as the natural slightly rancid scent of the pair which were not re-odorized, were shown to housewives by Colgate students. These housewives, encountered in a house-to-house survey, were requested to judge which of the hose were of the best quality. Each of the three scented pairs was chosen more often than the natural pair. There was a definite and consistent order of preferences of the three scented pairs as judged by number of choices of each. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)