About mood: how a negative mood in a videogame can influence our behavior

Abstract: Mood drives our daily life actions. Despite the common thought, it has been showed that a negative affect can have several benefits. This thesis purpose is to induce a negative mood through a videogame to improve the intentions of a more “environmental-friendly behavior”. The game is a simulation of a possible daily-life situation in which the player from its house has to reach its working place. What the player will soon understand during the game is that every action has a consequence that has an impact on the environment around him/her. To study the mood of the participants two questionnaires have been used before and after the videogame: one to catch the immediate and less thought feeling and one in which the participants have to describe their mood in more details. Gathered data have been approached both in a qualitative and quantitative way to catch every shade of participants’ mood. Results showed how the negative mood induced by the game improve the awareness and intentions of participants toward the environment problems.