Mood rings first became popular in the 1970s and were marketed as jewelry that could reveal a person’s mood or emotions through changing colors. The rings were said to use thermochromic technology to detect subtle changes in body temperature caused by fluctuations in emotions. While mood rings remain a novelty item today, many people wonder if they actually work as claimed or if the color changes are random.
How Mood Rings Work
A mood ring contains a thermochromic liquid crystal inside the stone or band that is calibrated to change colors at precise temperatures. The most common type of liquid crystal used is made with silica glass and contains chromium, iron, and nickel. These ingredients are combined in a way that causes the crystals to reflect different wavelengths of light at different temperatures.
For example, at lower temperatures around 82°F (28°C) the crystals may appear black or blue. As the temperature increases to around 88°F (31°C), the color changes to purple or pink. Near body temperature around 90-95°F (32-35°C), the mood ring turns green, yellow, or orange.
The ring is designed to be worn against the skin on a finger. As blood circulation in the finger changes slightly with shifts in emotion, rising or falling body heat causes the color of the ring to change accordingly.
Do Color Changes Reflect Emotions?
When mood rings first emerged, accompanying color-emotion charts claimed the rings could indicate emotional states like calm, anxious, passionate, happy, nervous, sad, and more. However, the premise that subtle blood flow changes reliably correlate with complex emotions has been largely discredited.
Modern scientific research indicates mood rings do not accurately reflect emotions for several reasons:
– Emotions are complex neurological and chemical reactions that cannot be simplified into a few color categories. Things like grief, excitement, anger, joy, fear, and surprise produce wide-ranging physical effects that cannot be distinguished through small temperature shifts.
– Many other factors affect finger temperature besides emotions, including air temperature, exercise, stress levels, medications, and more. Random heat variations may trigger color changes unrelated to mood.
– People have highly individualized responses to emotions based on personality, background, context, health status, and other variables. There is no universal way we express feelings physically.
– The basic technology in mood rings has not significantly advanced since the 1970s. The simple liquid crystals remain prone to inconsistencies and inaccuracies.
Why Do Colors Seem to Change?
While mood rings may not reveal true emotions, the rings do tend to cycle through an intriguing spectrum of colors throughout the day. This happens because of the hypersensitivity of the liquid crystals to small temperature changes. Reasons why mood ring colors appear to shift frequently include:
– Adjusting to a colder or warmer surrounding environment like moving between indoors and outdoors.
– Brief changes in blood circulation from activities like exercising, typing, driving, drinking a hot or cold beverage, etc.
– General shifts in stress levels, time of day, sleep patterns, or hormonal fluctuations.
– Reacting to new sources of heat like sun, warm water, or another person’s touch.
– Inconsistent wear if the ring slides to different finger positions.
So while color variability in mood rings exists, the changes are often arbitrary and do not carry deeper meaning about emotions.
Conclusion
In summary, despite their continued whimsical appeal, mood rings do not accurately reflect emotions as claimed when they first emerged decades ago. The pseudoscience behind them has been largely disproven, as body temperature shifts are poor indicators of complex psychological states. However, the technology still reacts to subtle heat variations from multiple sources. So mood rings can cycle through an array of colors throughout the day, even though the changes are unrelated to the wearer’s mood. While they remain a sentimental novelty item, mood rings primarily show the amazing intricacy of liquid crystal technology rather than revealing true emotions.
| Emotion | Mood Ring Color |
|---|---|
| Calm | Blue |
| Anxious | Yellow |
| Passionate | Orange |
| Happy | Green |
| Nervous | Red |
| Sad | Black |
