Blue Screen – Blue Mood? Influence of Background Color and Attractiveness of Female Stimulus Persons on Current Mood in an Online Experiment (PANAS)

May 2024

Ronald Henss

Studysummary This study found that the attractiveness of women's faces had a significant but weak effect on negative emotions among participants, while website background color influenced positive emotions with green being preferred. Our plain-language summary of this paper — not a Tressless recommendation.

In an online experiment with over 6,000 participants, the study examined the influence of background color and the attractiveness of female faces on participants' mood using the PANAS scale. The results showed that the attractiveness of the women had a weak but significant effect on Negative Affects, while background color influenced Positive Affects, with Green being the most favorable. The English-language participants scored higher on Negative Affects, and males scored higher on Positive Affects than females. Older participants scored better on both scales compared to younger ones. The background color did not affect the likeability ratings of the women's faces.

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