This effect accords with other findings that negative moods induce careful and systematic cognition. They correctly recalled seven times as many objects on cloudy days as on sunny ones. Shoppers exiting a boutique were quizzed about ten unusual objects – including a toy tractor and a pink piggy-bank – that had been placed in the check-out area. Research by Sydney’s Joseph Forgas shows that sunshine can also affect our mental sharpness. Can we expect future studies on chocolate (2014) and puppies (2015)? Rarely have psychologists lived up to national stereotypes so well: the Americans study money, the French study romance.Īnd the Australians study shopping. Guéguen’s finding of sun-assisted flirtation followed up his earlier studies on the effects of exposure to flowers (2011) and pastry aromas (2012) in priming women for seduction. “Antoine” achieved an impressive success rate of 22% on sunny days but only 14% when it was cloudy. “I’ll phone you later and we can have a drink together someplace”. “I just want to say that I think you’re really pretty”, he cooed. In a 2013 study by French psychologist Nicolas Guéguen, an attractive male confederate approached unaccompanied young women and solicited their phone numbers. On rainy days people report lower satisfaction with their lives. Investors may benefit in the same way as waitresses American studies have observed better daily stock returns in sunny weather.

One study found that Minnesotan diners tipped more generously on sunny days. Happy people are more favourably disposed to one another, and accordingly people are more helpful when the sun is out.

Although the link is weaker than many people imagine, sunlight has repeatedly been found to boost positive moods, dampen negative moods and diminish tiredness.Īnything that alters our moods can affect our behaviour. Of the many aspects of weather, sunshine is the most intimately tied to mood. Weather provides a vivid language for describing our emotional atmosphere, but does it also influence it? Do grey days bring grey moods? When the mercury rises, does our blood boil? Like the weather, our emotions sometimes seem like fickle forces of nature: unstable, enveloping and uncontrollable. Moods can brighten and darken, dispositions can be sunny, futures can be under a cloud and relationships can be stormy. The weather supplies many metaphors for our changeable minds.

Rainy days put my moods