March 20, 2026 • 8 mins
Can watching someone paint make you feel better? Scientists have proof that watching Bob Ross can significantly improve your mood.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, welcome to Sign Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. I'm
hor hit him. And if you're feeling stressed about what's
going on in the world right now, I think we
have a solution for you. It's called the Bob Ross Effect.
You know Bob Ross. He's the legendary host of the
PBS show The Joy of Painting. You might know him
(00:21):
from Missus Haridoo or The Calming Way, in which he
guides viewers to paint amazing landscapes from scratch.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
You can always add a little blue if it gets
too bright, and dull it right down, because you know,
if you've painted with us before, we don't make mistakes,
if we have happy accidents.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yes, that Bob Ross Now. In twenty twenty four, a
group of students and researchers at Skidmore College published the
paper titled Exploring the Bob Ross Effect, a psycho physiological
hidden stigation, in which they try to find out if
listening to Bob Ross could actually make you feel better.
It turns out the answer is yes. Here to tell
(01:10):
us about it is the lead researcher on that experiment,
doctor Stephen Ives, a professor in the Department of Health
and Human physiological sciences. You might remember doctor Ice from
the episode about whether you really need to wait thirty
minutes after eating before you can go swimming. So here's
my happy accident of a chat with doctor Ives. All right,
(01:32):
doctor Ies, thanks so much for joining us here today.
Of course, I wonder if I can ask you about
the Bob Ross effect I saw. Do you have a
paper related to this fact? What is it?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
So this kind of goes back to COVID times, you know,
and we're all sitting around. I found myself watching a
lot of news, like most of us probably were, and
I noticed my children sitting next to me and they
were also watching the news. I'm like, oh, this is
maybe not the best decision, and so I changed channel
to PBS. Bob Ross was on YEA, and I could
(02:08):
see them being fronted, like eyes wide open to just
almost melted into the couch, and it was just sort
of kind that was interesting.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
They were fascinated, they were interested.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
They were very interested and sort of almost calmed in
a sense. And so it's like, oh, if there's something
to this. And then I started doing a little googling,
and yeah, there's a cult following of people who say,
listen to bob Ross before going to bed, or if
they're stressed out, or if they're studying, they'll study to
the sounds of Bob Ross. And so it's been sort
(02:43):
of coined this bob Ross effects, which they talk about
eliciting the ASMR response. So I think it's audio sensory
meridian response, and it's again something we don't have a
lot of understanding of, but it's thought certain frequencies or
sounds can elicit a brain response, and usually it's a
(03:06):
favorable one, right, Unlike the sounds of nails on a
chalkboard that all just kind of gives us the creeps, right.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
The opposite, Yeah, yeah, but if you think about the
sounds wind or waves crashing on a beach, or in
this case, listening to Bob Ross, and it lists like
a soothing response.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
And so at the height of the COVID pandemic, doctor
Ives decided to do an experiment. But everyone with social
distancing from home. So they came up with a Psychology
Experiment take home kit.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
And so we came up with a clever way to
try and do study remotely, and so we made these
packages for participants. Blood pressure, cough, heart rate monitor, surveys
and then we would drop it off. Everything was sterilized
before we dropped it a half and then we remotely
administered a testing session. So these were mostly other college students, volunteers. Volunteers,
(04:05):
so they were randomly assigned to watching a Bob Ross
episode or a live stream of news.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Which network though Fox News or MSNBC like that might
that your response?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I think we did NBC News, Okay, so I wasn't
seeing enter Fox. It was kind of middle of the road.
And they watched one of those and then they kept
the equipment. We made measurements before they started watching during
and then after then they kept the equipment. In the
next day they did the other conditions. They started with
Bob Ross, then they would do news the next day
(04:40):
and vice versa. So we looked at their cardiovascular response,
their heart rate. Their heart rate is fixed. Everybody thinks
it's like this fixed number, but it's it's just always
moving around. Really, we wanted to look at the heart
rate variability blood pressure classic indicator of cardiovascular health, and
then we looked at something called palm profile of mood
(05:01):
states it's sixty something questions. It gets that anger, depression, anxiety, confusion,
and vigor. I want to say, are the domains of that,
like how do you feel?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
How do you feel? And we didn't find much with
blood pressure. The heart rate variability seemed to point to
lower sympathetic activity relative to parasympathetic, so people were from
a physiological sense less stressed in the Bob Ross condition.
The biggest effects we saw, though, were in the mood states.
(05:36):
So when we looked at how they changed from before
they watched after they watched, it moved in the direction
that you might expect. So watching news increased anxiety, it
increased depression, in increased confusion, it increased fatigue, decreased energy
or vigor. That Bob Ross had the opposite effect.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
What do you mean?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Watching Bob Ross acutely decreased indices of depression, anxiety, confusion.
So they had overall better mood after watching Bob Ross
for twenty six.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Minutes, keeper than therapy.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Now, I mean we need to do a long term study.
You know, all the disclaimers I could possibly put on that,
but it's promising. I think it's interesting. Try watching an
episode tonight.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I might, I will. I guess The question is what
do you think it is? About Bob Ross. Do you
think it's Bob Ross himself or the act of painting,
or just what we experienced with this ASMR Like if
I just heard twenty six minutes of someone whispering in
my ear and opening canisters or something, would that also
have the same effect or is it special to Bob Ross.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I think he has a unique blend of the visual
element where he just takes a paint brush and there
is nothing that all of a sudden it looks like
a beautiful mountain and it's a matter of seconds that
it happens. So there's something sort of I would say,
I don't want to say magical, but say magical. There's
something mystifying about watching that. But I think there's definitely
(07:05):
an auditory component to it as well.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
His voice, his cadence, Yes.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Very soothing to listen to, No sudden intonations or loudness
to it, very smooth and somber.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Interesting. Do you think that was purposeful or do you
think that's just his personality.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I think it's his personality. Yeah, he was an interesting fellow.
I think he kept pet squirrels. I think it gives
you a clue to maybe what his personality was.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Like yes, So in these stressful times, go ahead and
google Bob Roth on YouTube and watch one of his videos.
It's scientifically proven to make you feel better. Thanks for
joining us, See you next time.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Because very soon you learned to work with anything, it
happens here, and when you get over that fear of
making a mistake, then it becomes fun.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
You've been listening to Science Stuff Reduction of iHeartRadio, written
and produced by me or Hey Cham, edited by Rose Seguda,
executive producer Jerry Rowland, and audio engineer and mixer Ksey Pegrom,
and you can follow me on social media. Just search
for PhD Comics and the name of your favorite platform.
Be sure to subscribe to Sign Stuff on the iHeartRadio app,
(08:30):
Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, and please
tell your friends we'll be back next Wednesday with another episode. Hey,
please take a second and leave us a review on
(08:50):
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to the podcast.
Thanks a lot,
Hey, welcome to Sign Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. I'm
hor hit him. And if you're feeling stressed about what's
going on in the world right now, I think we
have a solution for you. It's called the Bob Ross Effect.
You know Bob Ross. He's the legendary host of the
PBS show The Joy of Painting. You might know him
(00:21):
from Missus Haridoo or The Calming Way, in which he
guides viewers to paint amazing landscapes from scratch.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
You can always add a little blue if it gets
too bright, and dull it right down, because you know,
if you've painted with us before, we don't make mistakes,
if we have happy accidents.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yes, that Bob Ross Now. In twenty twenty four, a
group of students and researchers at Skidmore College published the
paper titled Exploring the Bob Ross Effect, a psycho physiological
hidden stigation, in which they try to find out if
listening to Bob Ross could actually make you feel better.
It turns out the answer is yes. Here to tell
(01:10):
us about it is the lead researcher on that experiment,
doctor Stephen Ives, a professor in the Department of Health
and Human physiological sciences. You might remember doctor Ice from
the episode about whether you really need to wait thirty
minutes after eating before you can go swimming. So here's
my happy accident of a chat with doctor Ives. All right,
(01:32):
doctor Ies, thanks so much for joining us here today.
Of course, I wonder if I can ask you about
the Bob Ross effect I saw. Do you have a
paper related to this fact? What is it?
Speaker 3 (01:44):
So this kind of goes back to COVID times, you know,
and we're all sitting around. I found myself watching a
lot of news, like most of us probably were, and
I noticed my children sitting next to me and they
were also watching the news. I'm like, oh, this is
maybe not the best decision, and so I changed channel
to PBS. Bob Ross was on YEA, and I could
(02:08):
see them being fronted, like eyes wide open to just
almost melted into the couch, and it was just sort
of kind that was interesting.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
They were fascinated, they were interested.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
They were very interested and sort of almost calmed in
a sense. And so it's like, oh, if there's something
to this. And then I started doing a little googling,
and yeah, there's a cult following of people who say,
listen to bob Ross before going to bed, or if
they're stressed out, or if they're studying, they'll study to
the sounds of Bob Ross. And so it's been sort
(02:43):
of coined this bob Ross effects, which they talk about
eliciting the ASMR response. So I think it's audio sensory
meridian response, and it's again something we don't have a
lot of understanding of, but it's thought certain frequencies or
sounds can elicit a brain response, and usually it's a
(03:06):
favorable one, right, Unlike the sounds of nails on a
chalkboard that all just kind of gives us the creeps, right.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
The opposite, Yeah, yeah, but if you think about the
sounds wind or waves crashing on a beach, or in
this case, listening to Bob Ross, and it lists like
a soothing response.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
And so at the height of the COVID pandemic, doctor
Ives decided to do an experiment. But everyone with social
distancing from home. So they came up with a Psychology
Experiment take home kit.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
And so we came up with a clever way to
try and do study remotely, and so we made these
packages for participants. Blood pressure, cough, heart rate monitor, surveys
and then we would drop it off. Everything was sterilized
before we dropped it a half and then we remotely
administered a testing session. So these were mostly other college students, volunteers. Volunteers,
(04:05):
so they were randomly assigned to watching a Bob Ross
episode or a live stream of news.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Which network though Fox News or MSNBC like that might
that your response?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I think we did NBC News, Okay, so I wasn't
seeing enter Fox. It was kind of middle of the road.
And they watched one of those and then they kept
the equipment. We made measurements before they started watching during
and then after then they kept the equipment. In the
next day they did the other conditions. They started with
Bob Ross, then they would do news the next day
(04:40):
and vice versa. So we looked at their cardiovascular response,
their heart rate. Their heart rate is fixed. Everybody thinks
it's like this fixed number, but it's it's just always
moving around. Really, we wanted to look at the heart
rate variability blood pressure classic indicator of cardiovascular health, and
then we looked at something called palm profile of mood
(05:01):
states it's sixty something questions. It gets that anger, depression, anxiety, confusion,
and vigor. I want to say, are the domains of that,
like how do you feel?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
How do you feel? And we didn't find much with
blood pressure. The heart rate variability seemed to point to
lower sympathetic activity relative to parasympathetic, so people were from
a physiological sense less stressed in the Bob Ross condition.
The biggest effects we saw, though, were in the mood states.
(05:36):
So when we looked at how they changed from before
they watched after they watched, it moved in the direction
that you might expect. So watching news increased anxiety, it
increased depression, in increased confusion, it increased fatigue, decreased energy
or vigor. That Bob Ross had the opposite effect.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
What do you mean?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Watching Bob Ross acutely decreased indices of depression, anxiety, confusion.
So they had overall better mood after watching Bob Ross
for twenty six.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Minutes, keeper than therapy.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Now, I mean we need to do a long term study.
You know, all the disclaimers I could possibly put on that,
but it's promising. I think it's interesting. Try watching an
episode tonight.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
I might, I will. I guess The question is what
do you think it is? About Bob Ross. Do you
think it's Bob Ross himself or the act of painting,
or just what we experienced with this ASMR Like if
I just heard twenty six minutes of someone whispering in
my ear and opening canisters or something, would that also
have the same effect or is it special to Bob Ross.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I think he has a unique blend of the visual
element where he just takes a paint brush and there
is nothing that all of a sudden it looks like
a beautiful mountain and it's a matter of seconds that
it happens. So there's something sort of I would say,
I don't want to say magical, but say magical. There's
something mystifying about watching that. But I think there's definitely
(07:05):
an auditory component to it as well.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
His voice, his cadence, Yes.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Very soothing to listen to, No sudden intonations or loudness
to it, very smooth and somber.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Interesting. Do you think that was purposeful or do you
think that's just his personality.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I think it's his personality. Yeah, he was an interesting fellow.
I think he kept pet squirrels. I think it gives
you a clue to maybe what his personality was.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Like yes, So in these stressful times, go ahead and
google Bob Roth on YouTube and watch one of his videos.
It's scientifically proven to make you feel better. Thanks for
joining us, See you next time.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Because very soon you learned to work with anything, it
happens here, and when you get over that fear of
making a mistake, then it becomes fun.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
You've been listening to Science Stuff Reduction of iHeartRadio, written
and produced by me or Hey Cham, edited by Rose Seguda,
executive producer Jerry Rowland, and audio engineer and mixer Ksey Pegrom,
and you can follow me on social media. Just search
for PhD Comics and the name of your favorite platform.
Be sure to subscribe to Sign Stuff on the iHeartRadio app,
(08:30):
Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, and please
tell your friends we'll be back next Wednesday with another episode. Hey,
please take a second and leave us a review on
(08:50):
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to the podcast.
Thanks a lot,
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