ORCID

0009-0001-8849-904X

Keywords

Digital Experiences, Scent, AI, Sensory Marketing, Awe, Temporal Construal

Subject Categories

Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Marketing | Psychology

Abstract

This dissertation comprises two essays examining how environmental and psychological stimuli shape consumer experience, attitudes, and cognition. The first essay investigates the joint influence of scent temperature (warm versus cool) and scent arousal (stimulating versus relaxing) on experiential attitudes and cognitive performance in digitally mediated consumption environments. Across multiple lab experiments with biometric validation, findings reveal that these two scent dimensions interact to shape downstream outcomes. Warm, low-arousal scents (e.g., vanilla) enhance consumers' experiential evaluations of digital interactions but do not improve task performance, whereas cool, high-arousal scents (e.g., peppermint) boost cognitive efficiency and accuracy but do not elevate experiential satisfaction. These results demonstrate how and why ambient scents can shape consumer outcomes in technology-mediated settings. The second essay examines temporal sensitivity effects for the emotion of awe. Awe is a self-transcendent emotion elicited by stimuli that are vast and require accommodation of one's existing mental frameworks. Across multiple studies spanning diverse product categories and comparison emotions, this essay investigates how temporal framing in terms of proximal temporal orientation versus distal temporal orientation moderates the awe response and its downstream consequences. Results suggest that pairing awe with proximal temporal framing creates a boomerang effect where attitudes toward the awe-evoking marketing communication become less favorable compared to those exposed to distal temporal framing. Together, these essays contribute to a growing body of work on sensory and emotional consumer behavior, demonstrating that seemingly subtle contextual factors like the sensory profile of an ambient scent and the temporal lens through which a marketing communication is viewed can have consequential and sometimes counterintuitive effects on cognition, affect, and behavior. The findings carry both theoretical and practical implications, offering guidance on when and how to deploy multisensory cues and emotional appeals for maximum effectiveness.

Completion Date

2026

Semester

Summer

Committee Chair

Wang, Ze

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

Barry S. Miller College of Business

Department

Marketing

Format

PDF

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

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