We’ve all experienced that surreal moment when a particular smell transports us to a specific time and place in our past. Whether it’s the comforting aroma of pot-roast at grandma’s house or the cologne that a first boyfriend wore, smells have a special ability to conjure up precise memories and emotions. In light of this, it stands to reason that scents can also influence our decisions.

By eliciting certain images or emotions, smells can activate whatever behaviors or “scripts” we associate with those images and feelings. For example, the smell of popcorn may recruit happy memories of nights spent with friends and persuade us to seek out entertainment. Or that definitive new-car smell could attune us to status issues and encourage spending. Research at the intersection of olfaction and psychology is starting to burgeon, with fascinating studies on how foul odors incite aggression and pheromones trigger sexual attraction. Most of these olfactory influences operate at a rather unconscious level, promoting behaviors for reasons unbeknown to us.

In the context of the research I conducted with Chenbo Zhong and Adam Galinsky, clean scents can promote virtuous behavior. This is rooted in one of the symbolic associates of cleanliness: morality. Both language and religion offer many illustrations of the core association between physical cleanliness and moral cleanliness. Many languages rely on the clean/dirty metaphor to communicate ethical concepts (e.g., “dirty laundry,” “clean up your act”). Likewise, nearly every world religion incorporates certain physical cleansing ceremonies as symbolic surrogates for moral purification.

The robust psychological connection between physical and moral cleanliness causes people to feel literally contaminated by unethical behavior, and, in the case of our forthcoming research, exposure to a clean environment seems to activate people’s sense of morality. In our experiments, we found that people exposed to citrus-scented cleaner were more likely to display equity and charity in their interactions with others.

I’m always intrigued by environmental factors that subtly and unobtrusively influence people’s behavior. As we try to understand why some people lose their moral footing while others stay the moral high ground, who would’ve thought that a clean scent could promote virtue! Obviously, there are innumerable factors that influence ethical behavior, but there appears to be some truth to the adage, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.”

Katie Liljenquist is a professor in the department of organizational leadership and strategy in the Marriott School at Brigham Young University.