Plain Texts as an Online Mood-Induction Procedure

This experiment examined six short texts for their effectiveness in inducing positive or negative mood in an online environment. Compared to two control groups, the texts successfully changed mood in the desired direction for mood measured on a single-item self-report scale. In accordance with previous research, negative mood was induced more effectively than positive mood. In addition to the self-report mood measure, two non-self-report mood measures are used; namely, word-pleasantness ratings and subjective probabilities of negative life-events. Pleasantness ratings of uncommon words seemed to be a suitable measure for mood, whereas subjective probabilities of negative life-events were not.