Does the mood matter?

Abstract

We report the results of the experiment that examined effects of mood on search performance. Participants were asked to use Google search engine to find answers to two questions. Searchers' mood was measured using the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS). Search performance was measured by number of websites visited, time spent reading search results, quality of answers and other similar measures. Analysis of relationship between the mood and search performance indicated that positive mood prior to the search affected certain search behaviors, but neither positive nor negative moods had significant effect on the quality of search results.