The Brussels Mood Inductive Audio Stories (MIAS) database

Through this study, we aimed to validate a new tool for inducing moods in experimental contexts. Five audio stories with sad, joyful, frightening, erotic, or neutral content were presented to 60 participants (33 women, 27 men) in a within-subjects design, each for about 10 min. Participants were asked (1) to report their moods before and after listening to each story, (2) to assess the emotional content of the excerpts on various emotional scales, and (3) to rate their level of projection into the stories. The results confirmed our a priori emotional classification. The emotional stories were effective in inducing the desired mood, with no difference found between male and female participants. These stories therefore constitute a valuable corpus for inducing moods in French-speaking participants, and they are made freely available for use in scientific research.