The mere smell of coffee can have a significant placebo effect, improving performance in math tests even without the consumption of caffeine. Researchers at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, USA, investigated whether the aroma of coffee could enhance cognitive performance. In a study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, 100 economics students took a math test on a computer. Half of the participants were in a room with a light coffee scent, while the other half were in a neutral-smelling room. The results showed that the coffee aroma alone was enough to trigger a strong placebo effect, with participants performing significantly better than the control group who were not exposed to the scent.
According to the study’s lead author, Adriana Madzharov, the coffee scent not only helped the participants perform better on the analytical test, but also made them more confident in their abilities. The researchers concluded that the expectation of soon being able to drink coffee was responsible for the improved performance, even without the presence of caffeine. The study also found that olfactory stimuli have a strong effect on humans, which could be used in everyday situations such as exams or in the workplace to enhance performance.
Further experiments will investigate whether the placebo effect triggered by the coffee scent can also have positive effects on other areas of cognitive performance, such as visual brain function. The positive effects of coffee on health are well-known, including reducing the risk of multiple sclerosis, activating brown fat tissue to aid weight loss, and even increasing life expectancy. This study adds to the growing body of research on the benefits of coffee, demonstrating that even the aroma alone can have a significant impact on cognitive performance.
