Mood rings first became popular in the 1970s as inexpensive jewelry that claimed to reveal a person’s mood or emotions through innovative heat-sensitive crystals that changed colors. While the technology behind mood rings was debunked decades ago, these novelty rings remain popular today as fun accessories that allow wearers to look deeper into their shifting emotions throughout the day.
How Do Mood Rings Work?
Original mood rings from the 1970s contained a heat-sensitive liquid crystal inside the stone that would change colors based on subtle variations in the wearer’s body temperature. The ambient temperature would also impact the colors. These rings came with a decode chart to match each mood ring color to a supposed corresponding emotion or mood.
In reality, early mood rings did not have the capability to accurately detect emotions. The heat-sensitive crystals could only detect physical temperature changes in the finger, which may or may not align with moods. Modern mood rings today contain thermochromic liquid crystals that work in the same way to showcase an array of colors triggered by temperature changes.
Standard Mood Ring Color Meanings
While mood ring colors do not necessarily reflect true emotions, most mood ring guides today contain the following common color meanings:
| Black | Tense, nervous |
| Blue | Calm, relaxed |
| Green | Normal, average |
| Yellow | Excited, inspired |
| Brown | Stressed |
| Grey | Sad, bored |
| Amber | Happy, cheerful |
| Violet | Passionate |
However, mood ring color meanings can vary slightly across manufacturers. The key is to observe your most common mood ring colors throughout the day and note your general mood patterns in association with each color.
How to Get Accurate Mood Readings
While mood rings have limits in actually detecting your emotions, you can learn to interpret your ring’s shifting colors more accurately by following these tips:
- Remove the ring and let it sit at room temperature to get a neutral “baseline” color.
- Always start your day by putting on the mood ring when your emotion is neutral to establish your baseline color.
- Take the ring off periodically to let it cool down before re-wearing it.
- Consider external factors like air temperature and weather that could impact the colors.
- Track your mood ring colors and associated emotions in a journal to learn your patterns.
- Remember that no mood ring color reading is definitive for your actual internal state.
With consistency, you may find some mood ring colors tend to emerge during certain emotional states for you. However, variations are normal since many factors are at play that impact body temperature and mood rings.
Popular Mood Ring Color Meanings
While mood ring colors can vary slightly based on the manufacturer, here are some of the most common colors and associated meanings:
Black
A black mood ring typically indicates high stress or tension. It can also signal anxiety, fear, or nervousness. Physiologically, the body’s fight-or-flight response causes vasoconstriction to divert blood flow away from the extremities, resulting in a drop in skin temperature.
Blue
The color blue is linked to a calm, relaxed emotional state. Blue is associated with tranquility, peacefulness, and contentment. A blue mood can represent emotional stability and happiness.
Green
Green is considered the “baseline” color for mood rings when no strong emotions are present. It tends to emerge when you feel normal, balanced, and at ease. Green corresponds to an average or neutral mood.
Yellow
A vibrant yellow mood ring reflects feelings of excitement, joy, optimism, and inspiration. Yellow corresponds to energetic emotions, creativity, and an upbeat mood.
Brown
A brown or murky mood ring often represents stress or anxiety. It can also indicate exhaustion, sadness, or feeling emotionally burdened and weighed down.
Grey
Grey mood ring colors reflect sadness, melancholy, and boredom. It may signal mild depression, grief, or loneliness. Overall, grey corresponds to low energy emotions.
Amber
Amber or gold is linked to happiness and optimism. This color represents cheerfulness, laughter, light-heartedness, and hope. Amber can also indicate high energy and inspiration.
Violet
Violet and purple mood ring colors are associated with passion, love, sensuality, and high intensity emotions. The color may reflect excitement, infatuation, creativity, or strong sexual attraction.
The Limitations of Mood Ring Colors
While mood ring color meanings are fun, it’s important to remember the technology has significant limitations and cannot actually detect your emotions. Reasons why mood ring colors may not align with your true feelings include:
- Room temperature impacts the colors.
- Weather like cold weather can make your hands colder.
- Blood circulation affects skin temperature.
- Dehydration may alter the colors.
- Certain medications influence body temperature.
- Illness like a fever skews the colors.
- Emotions shift frequently throughout the day.
Mood ring technology simply cannot account for these many variables. So enjoy any insights the colors provide, but do not put too much stock in the accuracy of mood rings.
Conclusion
Mood rings offer a fun way to get more in touch with your shifting emotional states throughout the day. While the mood ring colors have defined meanings, each wearer will have their own unique color-emotion associations. Pay attention and journal your personal patterns. But ultimately, mood rings can only detect skin temperature changes, not actual emotions, so have realistic expectations when wearing these classic novelty rings.
