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Scent and the Cinema.

Charles Spence¹

¹Crossmodal Research Laboratory, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom.

|December 7, 2020

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Scented cinema experiences, despite past attempts like AromaRama, face psychological barriers. Key issues include inattentional anosmia and misattribution errors, hindering widespread adoption.

Keywords:

Feelies Perolin cinema entertainment scent

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Area of Science:

Sensory perception
Psychology of media consumption
Olfactory science

Background:

Historical attempts to integrate scent into cinema date back to early moving pictures.
Early systems like AromaRama and Smell-O-Vision faced significant technical hurdles.
Recent innovations include low-tech scratch-and-sniff (Odorama) and Edible Cinema concepts.

Purpose of the Study:

To explore the historical context and evolution of scent in cinema.
To identify psychological factors influencing the potential success of future scented cinema.
To analyze the challenges beyond technical and financial aspects.

Main Methods:

Review of historical cinema technologies and audience reception.
Analysis of psychological phenomena relevant to sensory perception and attribution.
Consideration of audience behavior and willingness to pay for enhanced experiences.

Main Results:

Despite some successes, technical and financial challenges persist for synchronized scent delivery.
Psychological factors such as 'inattentional anosmia' (failure to perceive scent) are significant barriers.
The 'fundamental misattribution error' leads visually-dominant audiences to credit visual stimuli over olfactory ones.

Conclusions:

Psychological barriers are likely to impede the future adoption of scented cinema.
Even with resolved technical issues, audiences may not value or attribute enjoyment to scent.
The visual primacy in human perception presents a fundamental challenge for olfactory cinema.