Effect of Comfort on Mood States Affecting Performance

Abstract

This study investigated the hypothesis that excessive physical comfort adversely affects mood states generally associated with superior mental performance. This hypothesis was explored in an experiment on office chairs. Eleven subjects evaluated three chair designs varying in comfort for eight hours on three separate days. The subjects performed a word processing task from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Comfort and discomfort were evaluated using the Shackel Scale and the Corlett Scale. Mood states were evaluated using a mood profile survey. The results suggested that the most comfortable chair induced mental mood states such as boredom, tiredness, sluggishness, (lack of) alertness and (less) energetic feeling which are generally associated with lower mental performance. It is suggested that for knowledge workers, comfort and performance may follow an inverted-U relationship. Too little or too much comfort may be detrimental to both physical and mental performance. This moderation on the view of comfort has considerable implications for the design of the modern workplace, particularly for office furniture. Its relevance to the sedentary work-styles prevalent in the United States is also discussed.

Keywords

Comfort Performance Mood states

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