Affective and Cognitive Consequences of Malodorous Pollution

The effects of malodorous pollution upon evaluative and cognitive judgments were examined in two experiments. In one experiment, 24 male and 24 female undergraduates evaluated paintings, peers in photographs, and persons described by adjectives while breathing air that was either unpolluted or polluted by ethyl mercoptan. As predicted, evaluations of unfamiliar, neutral, but not extreme stimuli were lowered by pollution. In a second experiment, 40 males and 40 females were exposed to one of four IS-minute sequences of odor and no-odor while they worked on simple (arithmetic) and complex (proofreading) tasks. Half of these subjects were led to believe that they could avoid exposure, and the other half were led to believe that exposure was uncontrollable. As hypothesized, malodor impaired performances on complex but not simple tasks; as was also hypothesized, exposure produced behavioral aftereffects in the form of lowered tolerance for frustration when subjects had been deprived of control. Under condition...

[1]  James A. Swan.  Response to Air Pollution , 1970 .

[2]  Philip Zimbardo,et al.  Influencing attitudes and changing behavior , 1969 .

[3]  Gerald L. Clore,et al.  7 – A Reinforcement-Affect Model of Attraction , 1974 .

[4]  G. Evans,et al.  Air Pollution and Human Behavior , 1981 .

[5]  J. Rotton,et al.  Air Pollution and interpersonal Attraction1 , 1978 .

[6]  M. Lindauer,et al.  Perception, Evaluation, and Performance in a Neat and Messy Room by High and Low Sensation Seekers , 1976 .

[7]  Behavioral effects of chemicals in drinking water. , 1982, The Journal of applied psychology.

[8]  Time and Temperature a Reply to Green and Simpson , 1977, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[9]  Paul B. Paulus,et al.  Density does affect task performance. , 1976 .

[10]  H. Heimann.  Effects of air pollution on human health. , 1961, Monograph series. World Health Organization.

[11]  N. Anderson.  Likableness ratings of 555 personality-trait words. , 1968, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[12]  Robert Mendelsohn,et al.  An empirical analysis of air pollution dose-response curves , 1979 .

[13]  C. R. Bell.  Effects of Lowered Temperature on Time Estimation , 1975, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[14]  S. Worchel,et al.  The experience of crowding: a two-factor theory. , 1976, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[15]  G. Evans,et al.  Adaptation to air pollution , 1982 .

[16]  Abraham H. Maslow,et al.  Effects of Esthetic Surroundings: I. Initial Effects of Three Esthetic Conditions Upon Perceiving “Energy” and “Well-Being” in Faces , 1956 .

[17]  J. Jacobs.  The Death and Life of Great American Cities , 1962 .

[18]  J. Rotton,et al.  Loud speech, conglomerate noise, and behavioral aftereffects. , 1978, The Journal of applied psychology.

[19]  J. Fraumeni,et al.  Cancer mortality in U.S. counties with petroleum industries , 1977, Science.

[20]  G. Evans,et al.  Behavioral and Physiological Consequences of Crowding in Humans , 1979 .

[21]  Effects of Environmental Noises on Estimation of Duration , 1975, Perceptual and motor skills.

[22]  Mark Fowler,et al.  Felton & Fowler's Best, worst, and most unusual , 1975 .

[23]  N. Feather,et al.  The relationship of persistence at a task to expectation of success and achievement related motives. , 1961, Journal of abnormal and social psychology.

[24]  D. Sherrod,et al.  Crowding, Perceived Control, and Behavioral Aftereffects1 , 1974 .

[25]  J. Russell,et al.  An approach to environmental psychology , 1974 .

[26]  D. C. Glass,et al.  Reappraisal of the relationship between noise and human performance by means of a subsidiary task measure. , 1970, The Journal of applied psychology.

[27]  B. Moore,et al.  Effects of personal causation and perceived control on responses to an aversive environment: The more control, the better , 1977 .

[28]  G. T. Gardner,et al.  Effects of federal human subjects regulations on data obtained in environmental stressor research. , 1978, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[29]  Muzafer Sherif,et al.  Attitude and Attitude Change: The Social Judgment-Involvement Approach , 1982 .

[30]  P. Schönemann,et al.  Power Tables for Analysis of Variance , 1978 .

[31]  P. Kirschner,et al.  FACILITATING EFFECTS OF "EATING-WHILE-READING" ON RESPONSIVENESS TO PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATIONS. , 1965, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[32]  Michael Milligan,et al.  The Air Pollution Experience and Physical Aggression1 , 1979 .

[33]  P. Bell,et al.  Aggression and heat: the influence of ambient temperature, negative affect, and a cooling drink on physical aggression. , 1976, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[34]  S. Cohen,et al.  Aftereffects of stress on human performance and social behavior: a review of research and theory. , 1980, Psychological bulletin.