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 or she is showered with gifts, and the color of the gifts is determined by his or her gender (e.g., blue for boys and pink for girls). Children are often dressed in colors associated with their gender. Furthermore, as individuals age and their vocabulary increases, they tend to learn about associations between moods and colors and sometimes create such associations themselves. For example, "I'm red with anger" or "I'm sad" are common phrases used to describe feelings. Most research on color psychology involves the preference or association between colors and moods and, therefore, the present study seeks to examine whether manipulating the colors of questionnaires will influence self-reported mood. Mood An individual's mood can be described as the representation of an individual's emotional condition. been divided into two large dimensions: positive and negative affects. Positive affect is characterized by the extent to which one experiences pleasant involvement 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, those who have a high level of positive affect have a low level of negative affect and vice versa. Descriptors of positive affect include: active, alert, attentive, enthusiastic, interested, joyful, etc. Descriptors of negative affect include: scared, nervous, hostile, guilty, sad, etc. Color preferences and emotional state examined by Meerum Terwogt and Hoeksma (1995) if individuals' separate preferences... center of paper... that individuals who had colorful work environments rated their emotional state higher throughout the 'year. However, most work environments were neutral or muted and, therefore, the authors suggest that a moderate increase in color in work environments would be beneficial to employee mood. Weller and Livingston (1988) examined whether colored questionnaire paper influenced participants' responses to three vignettes depicting a 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 had less emotional responses than blue questionnaires; thus, suggesting that pink is a calmer color than blue, which is in contradiction to previously mentioned studies that associate blue with relaxation and calm.