--- title: Do 'Clean' Smells Encourage Clean Behavior? description: Lady Macbeth will tell you: feeling physically clean can help you restore a pure conscience. Building on that notion, researchers used "clean" smells to inspire good deeds canonical: https://time.com/archive/6689983/do-clean-smells-encourage-clean-behavior/ author: Catherine Elton article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2009-10-23T04:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-22T06:07:45.988Z article:section: Health og:title: Do 'Clean' Smells Encourage Clean Behavior? og:description: Lady Macbeth will tell you: feeling physically clean can help you restore a pure conscience. Building on that notion, researchers used "clean" smells to inspire good deeds og:url: https://time.com/archive/6689983/do-clean-smells-encourage-clean-behavior/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4f40ffd8d93c756b/698a47ee0116826b449843f3/360_lwindex_1116.jpg?branch=production&width=360&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 360 og:image:height: 203 og:image:alt: 360_lwindex_1116.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Do 'Clean' Smells Encourage Clean Behavior? twitter:description: Lady Macbeth will tell you: feeling physically clean can help you restore a pure conscience. Building on that notion, researchers used "clean" smells to inspire good deeds twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4f40ffd8d93c756b/698a47ee0116826b449843f3/360_lwindex_1116.jpg?branch=production&width=360&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) # Do 'Clean' Smells Encourage Clean Behavior? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=673dae88-5078-4cdc-918b-51aa0e733dd3&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Catherine Elton](https://time.com/author/catherine-elton/) Oct 23, 2009 4:00 AM UTC  by [Catherine Elton](https://time.com/author/catherine-elton/) Oct 23, 2009 4:00 AM UTC Can a clean scent induce people to behave virtuously? “To some degree, washing actually is effective in alleviating guilt,” says Katie Liljenquist, an assistant professor at Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management and the lead author of a study to be published in Psychological Science. “What we wondered was whether you could regulate ethical behavior through cleanliness. We found that we could.” In two separate experiments, participants who sat in a room spritzed with citrus-scented Windex were more likely to act fairly and charitably than those in an unscented room. Other researchers have tackled the issue of morality and smell from the opposite end of the spectrum. A paper published last year in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin revealed that people are more critical and judgmental about certain moral issues when exposed to a fart-scented spray. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6689983/do-clean-smells-encourage-clean-behavior/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6689983/do-clean-smells-encourage-clean-behavior/"},"headline":"Do 'Clean' Smells Encourage Clean Behavior?","datePublished":"2009-10-23T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-22T06:07:45.988Z","description":"Lady Macbeth will tell you: feeling physically clean can help you restore a pure conscience. 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