Positive Mood Condition Research Articles

Feeling happy and thinking about food. Counteractive effects of mood and memory on food consumption

Separate lines of research have demonstrated the role of mood and memory in the amount of food we consume. However, no work has examined these factors in a single study and given their combined effects beyond food research, this would seem important. In this study, the interactive effect of these factors was investigated. Unrestrained female participants (n = 64) were randomly assigned to either a positive or neutral mood induction, and were subject to a lunch cue (recalling their previously eaten meal) or no lunch cue, followed by a snack taste/intake test. We found that in line with prediction that food intake was lower in the lunch cue versus no cue condition and in contrast, food intake was higher in the positive versus neutral mood condition. We also found that more food was consumed in the lunch cue/positive mood compared to lunch cue/neutral mood condition. This suggests that positive mood places additional demands on attentional resources and thereby reduces the inhibitory effect of memory on food consumption. These findings confirm that memory cue and positive mood exert opposing effects on food consumption and highlight the importance of both factors in weight control interventions.

Mood is linked to vowel type: The role of articulatory movements.

This study investigates the relation between vowel identity and emotional state. In Experiment 1, (pseudo)words were invented and articulated in a positive or negative mood condition. Subjects in a positive mood produced more words containing /i:/, a vowel involving the same muscle that is used in smiling--the zygomaticus major muscle (ZMM). Subjects in a negative mood produced more words containing /o:/, involving an antagonist of the ZMM--the orbicularis orbis muscle (OOM). We argue that the link between mood and vowel identity is related to orofacial muscle activity, which provides articulatory feedback to speakers on their emotional state. Experiment 2 tests this hypothesis more specifically. Participants rated the funniness of cartoons while repeatedly articulating either /i:/ (ZMM) or /o:/ (OOM). In line with our hypothesis, the cartoons were rated as funnier by subjects articulating /i:/ than by those articulating /o:/.

Stress-Related Clinical Pain and Mood in Women with Chronic Pain: Moderating Effects of Depression and Positive Mood Induction

Chronic pain with comorbid depression is characterized by poor mood regulation and stress-related pain. This study aims to compare depressed and non-depressed pain patients in mood and pain stress reactivity and recovery, and test whether a post-stress positive mood induction moderates pain recovery. Women with fibromyalgia and/or osteoarthritis (N = 110) underwent interpersonal stress and were then randomly assigned by pain condition and depression status, assessed via the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale, to positive versus neutral mood induction. Depression did not predict stress-related reactivity in despondency, joviality, or clinical pain. However, depression × mood condition predicted recovery in joviality and clinical pain; depressed women recovered only in the positive mood condition, whereas non-depressed women recovered in both mood conditions. Depression does not alter pain and mood stress reactivity, but does impair recovery. Boosting post-stress jovial mood ameliorates pain recovery deficits in depressed patients, a finding relevant to chronic pain interventions.

Stability of the Positive Mood Effect on Creativity When Task Switching, Practice Effect, and Test Item Differences are Taken into Consideration

AbstractAlthough experimentally induced positive mood can generally last for 20 min and the induced mood is conducive to creative performance, it is still unclear whether the facilitation effect is stable during these 20 min. Two studies were conducted to examine this issue while controlling for the impacts of task switching, practice effect, and test item differences. In Study 1, participants (N = 42) were randomly assigned to positive, negative, and neutral mood conditions. After watching a short video clip, participants answered four items of the Alternate Uses Test (AUT) in 20 min, with 5 min allotted for each item. Creative performance during each 5‐min period was scored in terms of fluency and flexibility. Separate repeated‐measures analyses of variances on these creativity scores showed that positive mood consistently enhanced performance over 20 min. Study 2 further eliminated the effects of test item differences and test order. Participants (N = 131) underwent the same mood induction procedure and answered the same four items of the AUT, except that these items were presented in four different sequences in accordance with the Latin square design. Consistent with the findings in Study 1, Study 2 showed that the facilitation effect of positive mood lasted for 20 min when the interference of task switching, practice effect, and test item differences were minimized. This finding not only sheds light on the debate regarding the stability of experimentally induced positive mood effect, but also contributes to the body of empirical evidence that future studies may use to examine the positive mood effect over a relatively long period of time.

道德情绪对道德判断能力的影响

本实验进行了两次测试，前测选取了网络热议或大学生生活中较典型的道德故事，对其进行前后测后，筛选出其中能诱发相应情绪的道德故事。正式实验中，情绪启动之后，测量被试的情绪状态，运用MJT对大学生进行道德判断能力测验。实验发现：积极情绪条件下道德判断能力显著低于控制组，控制组显著低于消极情绪组；不同的积极情绪条件下道德判断能力差异不显著；不同的消极情绪条件下差异不显著；男性的显著大于女性；大四的明显大于大一，其他年级之间差异不显著。This study conducted two tests. The pretest selected apologue popular on the Internat and typical in college students’ life. After pre-post test, the apologue which could induce corresponding emo- tions was screened out. In the formal test, after affective priming, subjects’ emotional state was measured, and MJT was used to test the moral judgment capacity of college students. It was found that the moral judgment capacity in the positive mood condition was significantly lower than that in the control group, and the moral judgment capacity in the control group was significantly lower than that in the negative mood group; the differences of the moral judgment capacity were not significant in different positive emotional conditions and also in different negative emotional conditions; the differences of the moral judgment capacity of males were more significant than those of females; the differences of senior students were more significant than those of freshmen, and were not significant in other grades.

Heightened vagal activity during high-calorie food presentation in obese compared with non-obese individuals—Results of a pilot study

Eating behaviours are highly cue-dependent. Changes in mood states and exposure to palatable food both increase craving and consumption of food. Vagal activity supports adaptive modulation of physiological arousal and has an important role in cue-induced appetitive behaviours. Using high-frequency heart rate variability (HF HRV), this preliminary study compared vagal activity during positive and negative mood induction, and presentation of preferred high-calorie food items between obese (n = 12; BMI ≥ 30) and non-obese individuals (n = 14; 18.5 < BMI < 30). Participants completed two laboratory sessions (negative vs. positive mood conditions). Following 3-h of food deprivation, all participants completed a mood induction, and then were exposed to their preferred high-calorie food items. HF HRV was assessed throughout. Obese and non-obese individuals were not significantly different in HF HRV during positive or negative mood induction. Obese individuals showed significantly greater levels of HF HRV during presentation of their preferred high-calorie food items than non-obese individuals, particularly in the positive mood condition. This is the first study to demonstrate increased vagal activity in response to food cues in obese individuals compared with non-obese individuals. Our findings warrant further investigation on the potential role of vagally-mediated cue reactivity in overeating and obesity.

Faith in Intuition moderates the effects of positive affect on gender stereotyping

This study examined whether individual differences in Faith in Intuition (FI) moderate the effect of PA on gender stereotyping. Participants (N=89) completed a measure of individual differences in FI and were randomly assigned in a 2 (mood, positive or neutral) × 2 (target sex, male or female) factorial design. After reading a description of a college student, identified as male or female, participants rated the likelihood that target would major in engineering (stereotypically male) and education (stereotypically female). A significant intuition×mood condition×target sex interaction emerged: Within the positive mood condition, FI was associated with stereotyping. Implications for research on mood and cognition as well as Cognitive Experiential Self Theory are discussed.

Negative affect promotes encoding of and memory for details at the expense of the gist: Affect, encoding, and false memories

I investigated whether negative affective states enhance encoding of and memory for item-specific information reducing false memories. Positive, negative, and neutral moods were induced, and participants then completed a Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) false-memory task. List items were presented in unique spatial locations or unique fonts to serve as measures for item-specific encoding. The negative mood conditions had more accurate memories for item-specific information, and they also had fewer false memories. The final experiment used a manipulation that drew attention to distinctive information, which aided learning for DRM words, but also promoted item-specific encoding. For the condition that promoted item-specific encoding, false memories were reduced for positive and neutral mood conditions to a rate similar to that of the negative mood condition. These experiments demonstrated that negative affective cues promote item-specific processing reducing false memories. People in positive and negative moods encode events differently creating different memories for the same event.

Modeling the effects of positive and negative mood on the ability to resist eating in obese and non-obese individuals

This pilot study adapted a well-established drug self-administration paradigm to examine the effects of mood induction on the ability to resist high-calorie foods and subsequent food consumption differently in 15 obese individuals (40.0% women, BMI: 35.1±3.70) and 15 non-obese individuals (46.7% women, BMI: 23.0±1.96). Participants completed two laboratory sessions (positive vs. negative mood conditions) consisting of 3-hour food deprivation, followed by mood induction, and a 3-hour ad-lib eating period, where they were asked to choose between favorite high-calorie snacks and monetary reinforcement. Obese individuals were less able to resist eating and increased high-calorie food consumption during the positive mood condition than the negative condition. Non-obese individuals were less able to resist eating during the negative mood condition than the positive condition, but their total consumption was not affected by the mood conditions. In obese individuals, food craving was associated with less ability to resist eating and greater calorie consumption during the negative mood condition. This is the first study to experimentally demonstrate that mood state may increase vulnerability to food consumption by reducing the ability to resist eating. The ability to resist eating may be a novel dimension of eating behaviors that has a significant contribution to understanding mood-eating relationships.

“I don't need your help!” Mood-dependent advice-taking in hypomania-prone individuals

It has been suggested that mood-dependent social regulation maintains problematic mood states in people vulnerable to bipolar disorder. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether a non-clinical sample with a high vulnerability to hypomania (high HYP) followed less advice in a goal-directed task than low HYP participants following a positive versus negative mood induction using music. Students (n = 48) were provided with audio ‘advice’ given in an encouraging, neutral or critical tone of voice during a synonym-matching task. Although the high HYP participants followed more advice overall than the low HYP participants, their pattern of advice-taking showed a bias for ignoring advice more often in the positive mood condition and following advice more often in the negative mood condition. A post hoc analysis further revealed that the high HYP group tended to follow advice given in a critical tone more often when experiencing a negative mood than the low HYP group did. The findings are consistent with other findings of mood-dependent advice-taking in individuals vulnerable to bipolar symptoms.

The Impact of Mood on Affect Regulation

Drawing on the mood-behavior model ( Gendolla, 2000 ), I predicted that both negative and positive moods evoke a stronger need for hedonic affect regulation than a so-called neutral mood. To test this hypothesis, participants were induced into a positive, neutral, or negative mood by autobiographical recollection and then selected which of three films they wanted to watch. The films varied in the extent of their potential for hedonic affect regulation. As expected, preferences for a pleasant film were higher in both positive and negative moods than in a neutral mood and the positive and negative mood conditions did not differ. Furthermore, a regression analysis found that the preference for a pleasant film was related to mood intensity. Implications for other models of affect regulation are discussed.

Mood as a resource in dealing with health recommendations: How mood affects information processing and acceptance of quit-smoking messages

Objective: An experimental study tested the effects of positive and negative mood on the processing and acceptance of health recommendations about smoking in an online experiment. It was hypothesised that positive mood would provide smokers with the resources to systematically process self-relevant health recommendations. Design: One hundred and twenty-seven participants (smokers and non-smokers) read a message in which a quit smoking programme was recommended. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: positive versus negative mood, and strong versus weak arguments for the recommended action. Main outcome measures: Systematic message processing was inferred when participants were able to distinguish between high- and low-quality arguments, and by congruence between attitudes and behavioural intentions. Persuasion was measured by participant's attitudes towards smoking and the recommended action, and by their intentions to follow the action recommendation. Results: As predicted, smokers systematically processed the health message only under positive mood conditions; non-smokers systematically processed the health message only under negative mood conditions. Moreover, smokers’ attitudes towards the health message predicted intentions to quit smoking only under positive mood conditions. Conclusion: Findings suggest that positive mood may decrease defensive processing of self-relevant health information.

Positive affect, intuition, and feelings of meaning.

Subjective rationality, or the feeling of meaning, was identified by William James (1893) as a central aspect of the non-sensory fringe of consciousness. Three studies examined the interaction of positive affect (PA) and individual differences in intuitive information processing in predicting feelings of meaning for various stimuli and life events. In Study 1 (N = 352), PA and intuition interacted to predict understanding for ambiguous quotes and abstract artwork. In Study 2 (N = 211), similar interactions were found for feelings of meaning for fans after their football team lost a conference championship game and for individuals not directly affected by Hurricane Katrina in events surrounding the hurricane. In Study 3 (N = 41), induced PA interacted with individual differences in intuition in predicting accuracy for coherence judgments for loosely related linguistic triads. Intuitive individuals in the positive mood condition recognized coherent triads more accurately than did other participants. Results are discussed in terms of the role of individual differences in intuitive information processing in the relationship of PA to cognition.

Do you feel what I feel? Mood contagion and leadership outcomes

This research examines the role of mood and mood contagion in a leadership situation. In phase 1 of the study participants received a positive or negative mood induction and completed a leadership speech describing how to complete a hiring task. In phase 2, participants watched one of the speeches from phase 1, completed ratings, and performed the hiring task. Followers in the positive mood condition had higher levels of positive mood and lower levels of negative mood, rated their leaders as more charismatic, and performed better than followers in the negative mood condition. Followers' mood mediated the relationship between leader mood and follower outcomes. In the third phase of the study, participants read transcripts of the speeches from phase 2 but experienced no change in mood or performance, suggesting the previous effects found in phase 2 were due to mood contagion rather than the content of the speeches.

The role of extraversion, neuroticism and positive and negative mood in emotional information processing

The present research investigates the role of the personality dimensions of extraversion and neuroticism in emotional information processing and the moderating role of positive and negative mood. Six hundred and fifty-four university female students completed the Persian version of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R); then, on the basis of extreme scores in extraversion and neuroticism dimensions from the main sample, four groups (each with 30 Ss) were selected. All groups experienced positive and negative induced mood in two separate sessions with 2 weeks interval. After mood induction in each session, subjects performed three cognitive tasks: free recall, probability rating and story completion. The findings revealed that subjects with higher extraversion, made more positive judgments and interpretations in the positive mood condition; and individuals with higher neuroticism, made more negative judgments and interpretations in the negative mood condition; but extraverted and neurotic subjects did not differ significantly in the number of positive and negative recalled words in the two mood conditions. Overall, the results indicated that personality traits influence emotional information processing, and support the moderating role of mood states in judgment and interpretation.

The Effect of Mood on Opposite-Sex Judgments of Males' Commitment and Females' Sexual Intent

Gender differences in perceptions of sexual intent and commitment have been the subject of formal and informal inquiry for considerable time. One evolutionary theory, Error Management Theory (EMT), predicts that opposite-sex perceptions of female sexual intent and male commitment intent reflect intrinsic biases that minimize gender-specific evolutionary costs. The results supporting these hypotheses were obtained from subjects regardless of mood. We hypothesized that mood would influence ratings of sexual and commitment intent. Sixty participants (30 males, 30 females) were recruited and exposed to a positive and negative mood condition in counterbalanced groups using video stimuli. Preliminary analyses found an unexpected effect of order of mood induction, necessitating separate analyses of the Positive-Negative (PN) and Negative-Positive (NP) groups. Contrary to the original study, there were no gender effects. Positive moods led to increased ratings of both sexual and commitment intent across genders. Further, negative to positive mood-change was associated with significantly increased ratings. Both males and females attributed significantly higher sexual intent to same-sex rivals than themselves, but only males assessed themselves as having significantly higher commitment intent than same-sex rivals. The EMT model may require adaptation to acknowledge effects of variables such as mood on its predictions of gender-specific biases.

Impact of Experimentally Induced Positive and Anxious Mood on Alcohol Expectancy Strength in Internally Motivated Drinkers

The effects of musically‐induced positive and anxious mood on explicit alcohol‐related cognitions (alcohol expectancy strength) in 47 undergraduate students who consume alcohol either to enhance positive mood states (for enhancement motives) or to cope with anxiety (for anxiety‐related coping motives) were investigated. Pre‐ and post‐mood induction, participants completed the emotional reward and emotional relief subscales of the Alcohol Craving Questionnaire – Now. The hypothesis that anxiety‐related coping motivated drinkers in the anxious mood condition (but not those in the positive mood condition) would exhibit increases in strength of explicit emotional relief alcohol expectancies after the mood induction was supported. An additional, unanticipated finding was that enhancement‐motivated drinkers in the anxious condition also showed significant increases in strength of explicit emotional relief (but not emotional reward) alcohol expectancies. The hypothesis that enhancement‐motivated (but not anxiety‐related coping motivated) participants would exhibit increases in explicit emotional reward expectancies following exposure to the positive mood induction procedure was not supported. Taken together with past research findings, the current results highlight the importance of distinguishing between subtypes of negative affect (i.e., anxious and depressed affect) in exploring the affective antecedents of explicit alcohol outcome expectancies.

Impact of positive and anxious mood on implicit alcohol-related cognitions in internally motivated undergraduate drinkers

We explored the impact of musically induced positive and anxious mood on the implicit alcohol-related cognitions of 48 undergraduate students who drink either to enhance positive mood states (EM) or to cope with anxiety (CM-anxiety). Participants completed a post-mood induction computerized alcohol Stroop task that taps implicit alcohol-related cognitions. As hypothesized, CM-anxiety participants in the anxious (but not those in the positive) mood condition showed longer colour-naming latencies for alcohol ( vs. non-alcohol) targets ( i.e., an attentional bias toward alcohol-related stimuli). Also conforming to expectation was the finding that EM participants in the positive (but not those in the anxious) mood condition displayed longer colour-naming latencies for ( i.e., an attentional bias toward) alcohol ( vs. non-alcohol) target words.

想起エピソードの重要度と鮮明度が気分一致符号化に及ぼす影響―自伝的精緻化課題を用いた検討―

This study investigated mood congruent encoding effects using an autobiographical elaboration task in naturally occurring mood states. We investigated the importance and vividness of the recalled episodes related to whether the stimuli words influenced mood congruent encoding effects. The result of Experiment 1 showed that mood congruent encoding effects occurred when participants in the positive and negative mood conditions recalled high importance episodes. The result of Experiment 2 showed that mood congruent encoding effects occurred when participants in the positive mood condition recalled high vividness episodes and participants in the negative mood condition recalled middle and high vividness episode. The pattern of mood congruent encoding effects differed with the quality of the recalled episodes. These results indicated that the qualities of recalled episodes influenced mood congruent encoding effect.

Gender, mood state, and justice preference: Do mood states moderate gender‐based norms of justice?

The present study extends research on distributive justice by investigating whether a person's mood state moderates the robust effects of gender norms on allocation decisions. One hundred and eighty undergraduates (90 men: 90 women) were asked to undergo a mood induction procedure in which they were randomly assigned to a positive, negative, or neutral mood condition, and to work on a task with either a male or female co-worker (confederate). This resulted in a 2 (gender of participant) x 2 (gender of confederate) x 3 (positive vs. neutral vs. negative mood) between-subjects factorial design. Following completion of the task, participants were informed that they did 60% of the work and their co-worker did 40%. They were then asked to divide money between themselves and their co-worker in a way that they considered fair. The analysis revealed a three-way interaction in participants self-payment whereby men in a negative mood, working with other men took more pay for themselves than did participants in all other conditions. Specifically, 60% of the participants in this condition, allocated the payment either equitably or in a manner suggesting even greater self-interest. These results support the view that gender effects are strongly influenced by the presence of other relevant contextual cues.