In the Mood for Flow: A Positive Mood Intervention Increases Flow Experiences

Flow, a highly motivational state of complete engagement with a goal-oriented activity, is associated with an intense experience of intrinsic enjoyment and subsequent mood improvements. The current study is aimed at testing whether the strong relationship between affective experiencing and flow can also be of use for designing interventions to induce this desirable state. In an online experiment, N = 280 participants played the computer game Tetris twice, while randomly undergoing a between-subjects mood intervention (viewing pictures of either positive, negative, or neutral valence) in between both rounds. Flow was measured via self-reports after each round of Tetris, and linear mixed modelling was employed to test the interaction effect of measurement point and intervention group on flow. Results confirmed a significant interaction, driven by an increase in flow in the positive mood intervention group. In comparison to both the neutral and the negative mood intervention groups, the positive mood intervention group reported significantly more flow. These results can be interpreted in the framework of broaden-and-build-theory and demonstrate a causal effect of positive mood on the occurrence of flow states, which goes beyond the correlational relationship or reverse effect that had been reported in flow research to date. Moreover, they represent a promising starting point for future flow intervention approaches that promote positive mood to systematically induce flow states, and thereby also motivation, during activity engagement.