Aromatherapy is said to work wonders on body, mind and soul. By utilizing essential oils extracted from herbs, flowers, and fruits this form of therapy claims to carry many benefits and are growing in popularity. But is this true? Can scents really persuade a person?
             To answer these questions I conducted an experiment with college students at the University of Iowa to find out if one's olfaction sense really does play a larger role than expected. To do so, I set up an experiment utilizing the scent of peppermint that claims to have effects on an individual's alertness.
             My experiment consisted of 100 University of Iowa Students whom were randomly selected. I randomly chose the students by going to a variety of lecture halls in order to accumulate a diverse group of students with different education backgrounds in order to assure I didn't bias my experiment by testing only one "type" of student (i.e. business, chemistry, theater, communication). They were instructed to arrive at McBride Hall where the experiment would take place.
             Before the students arrived at McBride Hall I placed pieces of paper on the seats that had a small amount of solid oil on them. Half of the oils were peppermint scented and the other half had no scent at all, they were dispersed randomly on the seats. This would act as my independent variable. I instructed them to not speak to others near them and to wipe a small amount of the oil under their nose. Next, I played an informational film on Spelunking. I chose Spelunking because it is not a popular topic and would most likely be new information for the majority of the students.
             After the film, I instructed the students to reach under their seats where a short quiz was prepared for them, on the film they just watched, and asked them to fill it out to the best of their ability. I had discretely marked the quizzes with a red dot in the corners of the quizzes of that st...