William Atkins
Saturday, 18 April 2009 21:20
Science -
Health
Page 2 of 3
A total of 14 days (over a two-month period) was involved in the study, with each day’s study being conducted from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time. The same clerk was used in order to control for extraneous, random factors (such as personality, behavior of the clerk, number of customers, etc.).
After the customers finished their business at the store they are asked how many of the ten objects they remembered seeing.
The people coming into the store on the dreary days remembered three times more objects than did people on the bright days.
The researchers concluded that the accuracy of people’s memories, along with the quality of their decision-making abilities, is affected by their moods, which is affected by the weather.
Forgas said,
"More and more evidence from experiments like this is showing that mild, fleeting moods can have a profound yet subconscious influence on how people think and deal with information."
He added,
"Being happy tends to promote a thinking style that is less focused on our surroundings. In a positive mood we are more likely to make more snap judgments about people we meet. We are more forgetful and yet we are paradoxically far more likely to be over-confident that our recall is correct."
On the other hand, Forgas contends,
"Mild negative mood, in turn, tends to increase attention to our surroundings and produce a more careful, thorough thinking style".
Page three concludes with additional comments from Dr. Forgas.
