The Influence of Emotion and Gender on Work Efficiency in Hazy Weather

Yaozhong Liu, Min Liu^*, Kai Yu

School of Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.

DOI: 10.4236/jss.2015.35009                

Abstract

In recent years, the eastern part of China has suffered numerous large-scale continuous fog and haze, which seriously impact people’s production and life. In present research, a combination method of questionnaire and experiment is used to discuss whether the hazy weather could in-fluence the emotion and if there are any impacts on the work efficiency. 2 (gender) × 3 (emotional type: positive, neutral and negative) completely randomized design is used and the reaction time (RT) is analyzed. The results show that 1) hazy weather truly induces the negative emotion, e.g. depression and anxiety; 2) the interaction effect of emotion and gender is significant; the RT of females is significantly longer than males’ in negative emotion condition; for females, RT in negative emotion condition is significantly longer than that in positive and neutral emotion condition, which shows that the hazy weather would lead some inefficiency.

Keywords

Negative Emotion, Work Efficiency, Hazy Weather, Gender, Working Memory

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Denissen, J.J., Butalid, L., Penke, L. and Van Aken, M.A. (2008) The Effects of Weather on Daily Mood: A Multilevel Approach. Emotion, 8, 662. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0013497
[2]	Young, M.A., Meaden, P.M., Fogg, L.F., Cherin, E.A. and Eastman, C.I. (1997) Which Environmental Variables Are Related to the Onset of Seasonal Affective Disorder? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106, 554-562. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.106.4.554
[3]	Feldman Barrett, L.A. (1995) Valence Focus and Arousal Focus: Individual Differences in the Structure of Affective Experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 153-166. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.1.153
[4]	Li, F. and Lu, S.H. (2014) Gender Differences in Emotional Experience and Its Causes. Social Psychological Science, 2, 40-43.
[5]	Grossman, M. and Wood, W. (1993) Sex Differences in Intensity of Emotional Experience: A Social Role Interpretation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 1010-1022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.65.5.1010
[6]	Storbeck, J., Davidson, N.A., Dahl, C.F., Blass, S. and Yung, E. (2015) Emotion, Working Memory Task Demands and Individual Differences Predict Behavior, Cognitive Effort and Negative Affect. Cognition and Emotion, 29, 95-117. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2014.904222
[7]	Yang, Z., Dubé, L. and Ma, Z. (2015) Males’ Responses to Negative-Emotion Advertising Appeals: Effects of Gender Role Socialization and Disposition toward Rational Thinking. Assessing the Different Roles of Marketing Theory and Practice in the Jaws of Economic Uncertainty, Springer International Publishing, 84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11845-1_32
[8]	Eysenck, M. and Calvo, M. (1992) Anxiety and Performance: The Processing Efficiency Theory. Cognition and Emotion, 6, 409-434. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699939208409696
[9]	Seitz, K. and Schumann-Hengsteler, R. (2000) Mental Multiplication and Working Memory. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 12, 552-570. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/095414400750050231
[10]	Desteno, D., Bartllett, M.Y., Braveman, J. and Salovey, P. (2002) Sex Differences in Jealousy: Evolutionary Mechanism or Artifact of Measurement? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 1103-1116. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.5.1103