A long list of research papers shows that input from one sense can influence perceptions in another. Coffee drunk from a white mug tastes nearly twice as bitterly intense as coffee drunk from a clear mug, for example, and we are prone to perceiving an orange-coloured, cherry-flavoured drink as tasting of orange. 

Now, new work led by Ryan J. Ward at Liverpool John Moores University, published in Frontiers in Psychology, reveals a new cross-modal perception: odours can affect our perceptions of colours.

”Given the abundance of findings in the field of cross-modal sensory perception, it does seem reasonable to think that specific odours may indeed influence the colours that we see.”