# Effect of Scents on Gazing Behavior and Choice
## 4 Discussion  
It was shown earlier that although odors play a role in human behavior, their effect might be suppressed by other factors, such as music [53]. [PERSON] and colleagues investigated the combined effects of sound and odor in order to study the behavior of crowds with respect to such effects, thereby improving the use of urban spaces. The study was a covert behavioral observation experiment, using the smell of bakery products as the odor source, while urban noise, music and fan noise were applied. There was also a control experiment where no sounds or smells were used. Their results showed that playing music in the absence of odor attracted the crowd, making the crowd's path more concentrated. Mass duration was significantly increased by the presence of odor, but the interaction between sound and odor was not significant [54]. Our results support these findings, as the effect of strawberry odor was not the only factor affecting consumer decisions. The results showed that the tea product group had a significant effect on gazing behavior. For any of the product categories, product choice and odor showed no significant effects. A significant interaction between product and choice was found for all four product categories, indicating that the product chosen was gazed at longer than those not chosen. These results support the findings of [PERSON] and colleagues [24]. However, a significant interaction between product and odor was only found for yoghurt products, but not in the chocolate, museli bar or tea product categories. The univariate tests showed that the product had a significant effect on FC in the muesli bar category and DC in the chocolate category. TTFF and FFD showed no significant effects between product and choice. For TTFF, there was no significant interaction between product and odor, while for FFD, there was a significant interaction for the yoghurt, museli bar and tea product categories. These results are in accordance with earlier findings, where the authors demonstrate that stents can increase visual attention towards congruent visual stimuli [6]. Our results show that for all four product categories, participants chose the product on which they gazed for the longest time. These results support the notion that the product chosen receives more visual attention, as expressed by the FD, FC, DD and DC indicators, but not the TTFF and FFD indicators. These results support H1, as participants chose the product that they had looked at the most often. According to previous studies, the length of the first fixation may be influenced by the presence of odor [6; 35]. In the present study, this claim holds for the yoghurt, muesli bar and tea product categories, but not for the chocolates (Figures S4-S6). A possible reason is that chocolate has a distinctive, strong smell, which overpowers the smell of strawberries. Therefore, when we see a picture of a strawberry chocolate, it is the smell of chocolate that first comes to mind. Our results also show that strawberry odor significantly (\(p<0.05\)) increased the FFD for strawberry- and mango-flavored yoghurts. The mango-flavored yoghurt has received a relatively high attention due to its specificity. The obtained results, therefore, partially support H2, as strawberry scent influenced consumer decision making only in the case of strawberry- and mango-flavored yoghurts. In the present study, a commercial strawberry aroma product was used and methyl 2-methylbutyrate, ethyl butyrate and ethyl 2-methylbutyrate were identified as its main components. Methyl 2-methylbutyrate has a sweet, fruity and green apple-like odor, while ethyl butyrate is described as fruity, sweet, pineapple, ester-like, strawberry, cheese, fruity and sweet and ethyl 2-methylbutyrate is described as sour, cheessy, sweaty and fruity [55; 56]. However, other studies identified different compounds responsible for strawberry odors.