Research Design Connection: Positive Moods

by Sally Augustin, Ph.D. | June 22nd, 2015

Diener and his team identified the mood that people are most likely to experience. And it’s slightly positive. Their work is important to designers, who are often trying to create spaces in which people feel good. Designers need to consider whether the experiences that people have in developed areas will destroy the positive mood that they likely had on entry. As the researchers report, “Evidence shows that people feel mild positive moods when no strong emotional events are occurring, a phenomenon known as positive mood offset…positive mood offset is virtually universal in the nations of the world…Positive moods increase the likelihood of the types of adaptive behaviors that likely characterized our Paleolithic ancestors, such as creativity, planning, mating, and sociality.” Ed Diener, Satoshi Kanazawa, Eunkook Suh, and Shigehiro Oishi. “Why People Are in a Generally Good Mood.” Personality and Social Psychology Review, in press. Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, …