Do colors have an effect on current mood? Colors are part of everyday life and are introduced into life from birth. For example, when a baby is born, he is showered with gifts and the color of the gifts is determined by his gender (e.g. blue for boys and pink for girls). Children are often dressed in colors associated with their gender. Additionally, as individuals age and their vocabularies increase, they tend to learn the associations between moods and colors and sometimes make these associations themselves. For example, “I'm red with rage” or “I'm blue” are expressions commonly used to describe feelings. Most research on color psychology involves a preference or association between colors and moods. The present study therefore seeks to examine whether manipulating questionnaire colors will influence self-reported mood. Mood The mood of an individual can be described as describing the emotional mood of an individual. state which is divided into two main dimensions: positive and negative affect. Positive affect is characterized as the extent to which a person experiences pleasant engagement with the environment (Clark, Watson, & Leeka, 1989). On the other hand, negative affect is characterized by subjective distress and negative emotional states (Clark et al., 1989). Furthermore, someone who has a strong positive affect has a weak negative affect, and vice versa. Descriptors of positive affect include: active, alert, attentive, enthusiastic, interested, joyful, etc. Negative affect descriptors include: fearful, nervous, hostile, guilty, sad, etc. Color preferences and emotional stateMeerum Terwogt and Hoeksma (1995) examined whether individuals' individual preferences...... middle of paper ......individuals who had colorful work environments rated their emotional state as higher throughout the year. However, most work environments were neutral or subdued and so the authors suggest that a moderate increase in color in work environments will be beneficial for employee mood. Weller and Livingston (1988) examined whether colored questionnaire paper affected participants' responses to three vignettes depicting murder or rape. The colors used for the questionnaires were pink, blue, and white, and participants were randomly assigned the colored questionnaires. The authors found that pink questionnaires elicited fewer emotional responses than blue questionnaires; thus, suggesting that pink is a calmer color than blue, which is contradictory to the previously mentioned studies associating blue with relaxation and calmness..