A video is worth a thousand thoughts: comparing a video mood induction procedure to an autobiographical recall technique

ABSTRACT Objective: Two common mood induction procedures (MIPs) use autobiographical recall (AR) or video clips. The first relies upon internal generation of mood states whereas the second presents external information to elicit emotion. Often new video clips are created for each experiment. However, no study has examined the efficacy and specificity of a freely available video clip compared to AR for use in other studies. Method: In the present experiment, participants watched either video clips or engaged in autobiographical recall to induce an emotional state. Participants were 53 University first year psychology students who took part for course credit. Results: The anger video clip was more effective compared to AR at increasing the target emotion (anger) and decreasing the non-target emotions - happiness and serenity. Compared to baseline both the video and AR anger scores were higher than sadness scores. Conclusion: The response to recalling personal events is more influenced by personality characteristics such as trait anger and neuroticism compared to the response to the video stimulus, which proved a cleaner stimulus. Implications for future research in both mood induction and media are discussed.