Abstract
The present research examined the influence of ambient lighting on approach-oriented motivation and emotion. Because darkness is associated with inactivity, the authors hypothesized that dark (vs. bright) environments would lower approach motivation. Consistent with this, participants in Experiment 1 (N = 80) reported less approach motivation in a dark (vs. bright) room. In Experiment 2 (N = 112), state anger –an approach-oriented emotion-was reduced among participants high (vs. low) on trait anger when participants were interviewed in a dark (vs. bright) environment. Subtle variations in ambient lighting may thus moderate approach-oriented motivations and emotions. These findings could have broad implications for understanding how environmental conditions may regulate human motivation and emotion.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 34-40 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Journal of Environmental Psychology |
| Volume | 60 |
| Early online date | 25 Jul 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2018 |
Funding
We gratefully acknowledge the support of funding from a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council ( ERC-2011-StG_20101124 ). Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to Sander L. Koole, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Department of Clinical Psychology, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Email: [email protected] . Appendix A
Keywords
- Approach/avoidance motivation
- Emotion regulation
- Situated social cognition