Moods and Helping helping someone can put people in a better mood, but can being in a good mood make people more likely to help someone? Are we less likely to help if we’re in a bad mood? What’s your prediction?
Good Moods and Doing Good Sunshine in Minneapolis and sweet scents in Albany give us some clues about the relationship between good mood and helping. Over the course of a year, pe- destrians in Minneapolis, Minnesota, were stopped and asked to participate in a survey of social opin- ions. When Michael Cunningham (1979) tabulated their responses according to the weather condi- tions, he discovered that people answered more questions on sunny days than on cloudy ones. Cun- ningham also found that on sunny days, restaurant customers gave more generous tips. Why should sunshine and helping go together? Probably it’s the mood we’re in, as a sunny day cheers us up, and a cloudy day makes us feel, well, gray.
When the sun is not shining, many people head for the mall. One of the best sensations you can count on experiencing while strolling through the mall comes when you pass a bakery or coffee shop, as the pleasant aroma of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies or freshly brewed French roast stops you in your tracks.