Impact of Mood on Perception: A Mood Induction Study

Abstract

This experimental investigation aimed to examine mood's impact on perception (judgment). In this study, two types of mood (positive and negative) were induced through visual cues (video clips). Before and after induction, positive and negative affect scale (PANAS) was administered. After checking the induction of mood through PANAS, participants were asked to judge 12 faces (two types of faces clear and ambiguous) according to 8 emotions Bouhuys Results showed that participants in the negative group showed biases towards negative emotions and the positive group perceived more positive emotions. According to these findings, negative mood leads to negative bias while perceiving facial expressions and mind wandering, which affects task performance and leads to irrelevant thoughts.