The emotional state of the individuals seldom remains stable and most of the times, it seem to be fluctuating. A number of factors can affects the emotional state of the individuals. The personality of the person can have a huge impact on the emotional state. On the other hand, the external factors can affect the individual behave. To carry out the effect of the emotional factors on the behavior of the audiences, Facebook carried out a study where they altered the news feed of 700,000 people. It has been seen that those audiences who were shown more negative bees feeds, uploaded more negative posts. On the contrary, the audiences who were shown more positive feeds, uploaded positive posts. However, Facebook was criticized for tampering the feeds of the audiences and carrying out the unethical study where they played with the emotions of the users.
Digital scent technology was introduced in the 1950s to see whether the external scent is altering the emotional state of the users. The idea of digital scent technology is used in many coffee shops to enhance the taste buds of the customers. XYZ Company that is also running a digital media platform wants to carry out the experiment regarding digital scent technology. The use of the technology is still in the inception stage. however, before launching, they want to see whether the effects of the scent is changing the behavior and the thought process of the individuals, they do not want to into the ethic violation radar and will inform the participants of the experiment while carrying out the research. The change in the audience will be able to throw light in the fact ion whether they should apply the digital scent technology or should continue their normal process of operating the web and media.
Hans Laube introduced the idea of digital scent technology in the late 1950s when he invented smell-o-vision. Smell-o-vision was introduced in a movie hall when a scent was preleased in the hall so that the viewers could feel the movie. However, smell-o-vision did not garner much appreciation as the hiss sound of the machine used to release the odor was not liked by many people. In addition this, the scent was not uniform throughout the hall.
DigiScents used the similar technology when they designed a device named, iSmell in the year 1999. Device could recognize natural odors with the help of 128 primary odors. With this technology, the person could smell the things that they are seeing in the web pages. The device can code the images in the web pages and the scents of the similar smell that will be released with the help of the device The idea of DigiScents was also a failure. Even after investing $20 million, it was able to carry out any further research and development due to lack of funds.
Since, then many companies have tried their hands on the digital scent technology but the technology is still in the inception stge. In year, 2000, the company Aromajet developed a device named Pinoke. However no news have been heard since December 2000 from Aromajet.
Trisenx, that was founded in the year 1999 launched scent dome in the year, 2003, which was another scent generating device. The UK internet service provider, telewest used the device. The device was teapot shaped device that would help in generating 60 types of smells.
In the year 2004, France telecom and Tsuji wellness that could generate smell from device called Kaori Web. K optimum, another Japanese firm has also placed certain units of these kinds if devices in internet cages. Sandeep Gupta is the first Indian who launched the device by inventing SAV products.
The countries have not thought of stopping their invention since then. Scentcom, is one such company from Israel that has tried the digital scent technology.
The research objectives for the present research are:
The research questions for the present research are:
While investigating on any topic, the researcher can take the help of three types of research methods (Baskerville & Wood-Harper, 2016). They are:
When the numbers of participants are more then they make use of quantitative research method (Nuttin, 2014). The feedbacks of all the participants are taken into consideration as a whole. They are given close-ended questions and based on that, their feedback is being recorded (Fassinger & Morrow, 2013). Statistical method or calculations are used to analyze the results of the feedbacks.
When the numbers of participants are less, then the qualitative research method would helpful (Khan, 2014). The participants can give their feedback in detail and the researcher would get a better idea about the subject. Not only the primary research but also the secondary research could have been done with the help of qualitative research method (Wildemuth, 2016).
The mixed research method is used when there is a need to go deep insight of the topic and get an overall idea about the feedback of a huge population (Smith, 2015).
For the present research, the feedbacks mixed research method will be taken into consideration. The qualitative research method will be used while retrieving the secondary data (Literat, 2013). The quantitative research method will be used while getting the feedback of the participants (Reybold, Lammert & Stribling, 2013). The secondary data will be in descriptive format and hence, will be retrieved with the help of qualitative research method. to get an idea about the scent technology, the number of participants required for the research is more, thus, the quantitative research method will be appropriate in this case.
A researcher can take into consideration two types of research approaches (Khan, 2014). They are:
When a researcher is able to give rise to a new theory, concept or model then it can be said that the researcher has used the Inductive research approach (Gries, 2013). The researcher searches for new ideas and areas of study and incorporates those ideas in the paper. The future researchers might be able to refer to the present research and models used here and use the theories in their paper (Yanow & Schwartz-Shea, 2015).
When a researcher uses deductive research approach, then the model and theories used by the previous researchers and uses them in the paper (Palinkas et al., 2015). The concepts that are being given rise by other authors are given extra care by the researcher and used in the possible way in the present research.
For the present research paper, the deductive research approach will be taken into consideration. The researchers who have used any theory or concept will be used in the research paper. as per the idea presented by Flick, (2014), any information or data that could be retrieved from the previous research papers will be used so that the feedback of the participants could be tallied with the results from the feedback of the participants.
A research cannot be said to be successful if it does not consider the ethical consideration (Bryman & Bell, 2015). So that the paper does not come under the radar for violating ethical issues, all the aspects of ethical research will be taken into account.
The participants will be taking part in a research where their emotional status will be checked and it would be unethical if they were not told about the main aim of the research. The participants will be told about the reasons behind carrying out the research work and the way the research will be carried out with the digital scent technology (Silverman, 2016).
The research will be testing of good smell and bad smell. The participants might not be able to bear the smell that is generated. They might also not like to alter their emotional states. As stated by Yin, (2013) regarding research ethics, the participants will not be forced to take and they will be given the choice to withdraw at any moment.
If the participants were not ready to share their personal information, they would not be forced to share the information (Bryman, 2015). The information that has been shared by the participants will also be kept hidden until it is required for any particular purpose.
The data of the participants should not be breached at any cost (Taylor, 2017). The data will be stored securely. If the participants needs to be contacted then they will be used or for any official purpose required by the authorities
The entire research proposal will be shown to the participants. The participants should be able to get a clear idea about the reason behind carrying out the research work (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2013). The participants should know the aspects that are being tested before the start of the actual research work.
The feedback of the participants will not be tampered at any cost. The feedback that is given by the participants will be used as it is. Tampering will not only lead to biasness but also give a different result for the research (De Vaus, 2013).
A researcher can make use of two types of sampling while carrying out the research (Baskerville & Wood-Harper, 2016). They are:
When the researcher does not bias on the participants who will be taking part in the research work or the data that will be used for the project, then it can be called probability sampling (Nuttin, 2014).
At times, the researchers mainly use only those data that would be able to throw light on the subject on which the research is being carried out then that type of sampling is called non-probability sampling (Fassinger & Morrow, 2013).
The researcher uses non-probability sampling when the person is retrieving the secondary data (Khan, 2014). The researcher will use articles that are talking about the digital scent technology. The searcher will be biased in this case, as other articles will not be taken into contusions.
For getting the primary data, the simple random probability sampling will be used. Going by the idea of Wildemuth, (2016), the participants will not be differentiated based on their background, race or ethnicity. The participants who are falling in the given age group will be interviewed. Once the desired numbers of participants will be reached, then the research process will be stopped. The feedbacks of the participants will be presented as it is and no tampering will be done as far as the feedbacks are concerned.
Two types of data are required to carry out the research work (Smith, 2015). They are:
The secondary data is being collected from the previous works of the researchers (Literat, 2013). Many authors might have done their investigation on the subjected on which the research is being carried out. The feedbacks of the participants shown in the research work is being used by other research works (Reybold, Lammert & Stribling, 2013).
When real participants are being interviewed to get their feedback on the present topic, then the data is called to be primary data (Khan, 2014). The feedbacks of the real participants are being used to get a proper idea of the research topic and get better results for the research work.
Both the primary and secondary data will be used for the present research work. The works of previous authors will be used for getting an idea about the subject. In addition to this, 100 participants between the age group of 18-50 years will be interviewed to get an idea about the digital scent technology.
To analyze the data, both descriptive and calculative method will be used. The secondary data will be descriptive and hence the data will be compared with each other and analyzed in the narrative format (Gries, 2013). On the other hand, the feedbacks of the participants will be more. As the number of participants will be more, it would be difficult to get a detailed feedback of each of the participants (Yanow & Schwartz-Shea, 2015). Thus, the feedbacks the participants will be analyzed with the help of MS Excel.
Validity refers to the extent the survey measures accurate elements that is required to be measured (Palinkas et al., 2015). The data collected is valid as the participants are well equipped with computer based knowledge and are active in the social networking sites, they even prefer in keeping their profiles updated with regular posts and status. This gives the opportunity to capture their emotion with digital senses (Flick, 2014). However, it is not guaranteed that a participant will able to post or give a status immediately after sensing the smell, they might post after some time, then the immediate effect of the digital sense will be eliminated (Bryman & Bell, 2015). Considering this point, the data might not be valid.
The study conducted is reliable to the point that the selected participants have the advanced knowledge of computers and a regular visitor to the social networking sites (Silverman, 2016). It has been assumed that the participants will give appropriate response to the survey and will not try to control their emotions. However, mere assumptions does not make the survey purely reliable as the participants are well informed about the objective, there can be slight chance that their emotions are not influenced by the smell. They can control their emotions in order to get a positive result about their state of mind. This does not make the survey fully reliable (Yin, 2013).
For the conduction of the research a set of 100 samples are selected which does not guaranteed to give appropriate result. For a better understanding of the emotions it is necessary to increase the number of samples, this will give the opportunity to open up vast arena of the study and will produce more accurate results (Bryman, 2015). Moreover, the selected number of people was informed about the purpose and objective of the study, this gives them the ability to control their emotions (Taylor, 2017). Therefore, in order to get reliable result, they should not be informed about the objective of the research.
After assessing the secondary data and the experiment made by Facebook, it can be concluded that the smell or some other forms of external emotion is capable of changing the current emotional state of the users who are using the websites. The surroundings in which the people live or the experiences they have, hugely affect the behavior of the participants.
The research will be carried out ethically so that there is no issue with the outcome of the research. the main issue of the research will be that the participants will have prior idea about the issue that will be evaluated. There is high chance that the participants will be biased while giving their feedback as they will be able to control their own emotions. Moreover, the emotions of the audiences will need time to develop. It might not develop on that time when they are smelling the scent. Repeated smelling might help the users to develop certain kinds of emotions. Thus, carrying out the study for a specific point of time might not be helpful in this case. They need to smell the scent for a long time so that they are able to tell that whether there is any change in emotions.
References:
Baskerville, R. L., & Wood-Harper, A. T. (2016). A critical perspective on action research as a method for information systems research. In Enacting Research Methods in Information Systems: Volume 2 (pp. 169-190). Springer International Publishing.
Bryman, A. (2015). Social research methods. Oxford university press.
Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2015). Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.
Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2013). Research methods in education. Routledge.
De Vaus, D. (2013). Surveys in social research. Routledge.
Fassinger, R., & Morrow, S. L. (2013). Toward best practices in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method research: A social justice perspective. Journal for Social Action in Counseling and Psychology, 5(2), 69-83.
Flick, U. (2014). An introduction to qualitative research. Sage.
Gries, L. E. (2013). Iconographic tracking: A digital research method for visual rhetoric and circulation studies. Computers and Composition, 30(4), 332-348.
Khan, S. N. (2014). Qualitative research method: Grounded theory. International Journal of Business and Management, 9(11), 224.
Khan, S. N. (2014). Qualitative research method-Phenomenology. Asian Social Science, 10(21), 298.
Literat, I. (2013). “A pencil for your thoughts”: Participatory drawing as a visual research method with children and youth. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 12(1), 84-98.
Nuttin, J. (2014). Future time perspective and motivation: Theory and research method. Psychology Press.
Palinkas, L. A., Horwitz, S. M., Green, C. A., Wisdom, J. P., Duan, N., & Hoagwood, K. (2015). Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 42(5), 533-544.
Reybold, L. E., Lammert, J. D., & Stribling, S. M. (2013). Participant selection as a conscious research method: thinking forward and the deliberation of ‘Emergent’findings. Qualitative Research, 13(6), 699-716.
Silverman, D. (Ed.). (2016). Qualitative research. Sage.
Smith, J. A. (Ed.). (2015). Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods. Sage.
Taylor, R. R. (2017). Kielhofner’s Research in Occupational Therapy: Methods of Inquiry for Enhancing Practice. FA Davis.
Wildemuth, B. M. (Ed.). (2016). Applications of social research methods to questions in information and library science. ABC-CLIO.
Yanow, D., & Schwartz-Shea, P. (2015). Interpretation and method: Empirical research methods and the interpretive turn. Routledge.
Yin, R. K. (2013). Case study research: Design and methods. Sage publications.
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