Computers have become an indispensable resource in assisting us in our daily life. While they do a good job most of the time, sometimes they can create a seemingly endless nightmare. Horrible user interfaces, bugs, errors, hardware issues and other factors are various causes of user frustration. The current approach is to either prevent it from happening or to fix the issue after it has appeared. In this study, an alternative approach is explored which makes use of distraction through mood induction. By using cute images of infantile animals it was argued that this could alleviate computer frustration. For this study, 60 participants were used to test this theory by first doing a frustrating task and a consequent treatment or control exposure. Mood and frustration levels were collected throughout the test and later analyzed. Additionally, opinions and reactions were collected using a follow-up interview and observations. Findings suggest that looking at cute images helps alleviate frustration caused by computers.

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