Day-of-week mood effects across four cultures

Day of the week
Are people in their best moods on the weekends? In most cultures that is true - for example, US and Australian adults tend to experience their highest positive effect on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and their lowest on Monday. For Germans and Chinese, positive effect is highest from Friday to Sunday and lowest on Monday. The same pattern even seems to hold in nations - such as many Muslim nations - where the weekend occurs on different days. This isn't the case in all cultures, however. As the exhibit shows, in Japan, positive effect is higher on Monday than on either Friday or Saturday.