Mood induction through exposure to facial expression

Abstract

Mood induction procedures are often used in investigating the role of affect in cognitive processes. The methods of mood induction currently being used have been subjected to various criticisms. This study attempted to demonstrate a mood congruency effect using an alternative method of mood induction. One hundred and twenty university students were tested for recall of positive, negative, or neutral affectively valenced words which had been paired with pictures of happy, sad, or neutral facial expressions on male and female models. A main effect was found for Word Type (p<.01) and two way interactions were found for Model Gender x Word Type (p<.05) and Model Gender x Expression Type (p<.05). Analysis of the distribution of errors based on word type demonstrated significant results when the paired model expression was positie and negative (p<.05), but failed to reach significance when the paired expression was neutral. The results provided qualified support for the use of exposure to facial expression as an alternative method of mood induction. The implications of these findings for future research methodology are disucssed.