Past research has shown that the way one walks reflects one's personality traits and mood states. A study was conducted to examine whether the way one walks can reciprocally affect one's mood. The study tested the hypothesis that walking vigorously would cause a person to feel happier, and that a shuffling walk would cause a person to feel more depressed. Under the pretext of a study of the effect of physical activity on heart rate, college student subjects (N=79) were instructed to walk for 3 minutes either naturally taking long strides, swinging their arms, and holding their head up or taking short strides, shuffling their feet, and watching their feet. Before walking, subjects completed a short mood questionnaire excerpted from the Profile of Mood Status (POMS). Following their walk, subjects completed a longer POMS questionnaire. Subjects also solved anagrams, rated their own performance, and completed Rotter's Locus of Control Scale. The results revealed that long-striders rated significantly higher on vigor and lower on depression and fatigue than did other groups while short-striders rated lowest on vigor and highest on depression and fatigue. Results from a second-study involving 68 subjects support the hypothesis that the way one walks affects one's mood, although it had no effect on task performance as measured by anagram problem solving. (Author/NB)