Mood and context-dependence: Positive mood increases and negative mood decreases the effects of context on perception.

Five studies show that mood affects context-dependence, such that negative mood promotes attention to a salient target, whereas positive mood enhances attention to both target and context. Judgments of temperature (Study 1), weight (Study 2), and size (Studies 3 and 4) were more strongly affected by the context in a positive than in a negative mood. Moreover, these effects extend to the social domain: When perceiving a target person's emotions, happy people were more influenced by the context than were sad people (Study 5). Thus, positive mood enhanced, and negative mood reduced, the magnitude of perceptual context effects. The results suggest that this pattern is not easily explained in terms of effort or depth of processing differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On being sad and mistaken: Mood effects on the accuracy of thin-slice judgments.

A series of studies explored how sadness impacts the accuracy of social judgments. In Study 1, induced sadness led to reduced accuracy in judgments of teacher effectiveness from brief samples of nonverbal behavior (thin slices). In Study 2, sad participants showed reduced accuracy in judging relationship type from thin slices as well as diminished judgmental efficiency. Study 3 revealed that higher Beck Depression Inventory scores were associated with diminished accuracy on the Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity. Finally, Study 4 tested the possibility that sadness impairs accuracy by promoting a more deliberative information-processing style. As expected, accuracy was higher among participants in a sad mood condition who completed the judgment task while simultaneously performing a distracting cognitive load task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of a communication on attitude change and scale judgments.

"The purposes of this study were to assess the effects of a persuasive communication on attitude change and on judgments of the scale values of opinion items and to examine the relationship between attitude change and evaluations of the communication. An experimental group of subjects was exposed to a communication advocating abolution of capital punishment, after which they evaluated the communication, judged the scale values of 36 opinion statements, and revealed their own attitudes by responding to 20 opinion items… . The major results are: The communication changed attitudes in the direction advocated. But the groups were alike in their judgments of the scale values of the related opinion statements. Hence, a change in scale judgments is not a necessary condition for attitude change." From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:3GD33W. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of message recipients' power before and after persuasion: A self-validation analysis.

In the present research, the authors examined the effect of a message recipient's power on attitude change and introduced a new mechanism by which power can affect social judgment. In line with prior research that suggested a link between power and approach tendencies, the authors hypothesized that having power increases confidence relative to being powerless. After demonstrating this link in Experiment 1, in 4 additional studies, they examined the role of power in persuasion as a function of when power is infused into the persuasion process. On the basis of the idea that power validates whatever mental content is accessible, they hypothesized that power would have different effects on persuasion depending on when power was induced. Specifically, the authors predicted that making people feel powerful prior to a message would validate their existing views and thus reduce the perceived need to attend to subsequent information. However, it was hypothesized that inducing power after a message has been processed would validate one's recently generated thoughts and thus influence the extent to which people rely upon their thoughts in determining their attitudes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive mood can increase or decrease message scrutiny: The hedonic contingency view of mood and message processing.

Currently dominant explanations of mood effects on persuasive message processing (i.e., cognitive capacity and feelings as information) predict that happy moods lead to less message scrutiny than neutral or sad moods. The hedonic contingency view (D. T. Wegener & R. E. Petty, see record 1994-32368-001) predicts that happy moods can sometimes be associated with greater message processing activity because people in a happy mood are more attentive than neutral or sad people to the hedonic consequences of their actions. Consistent with this view, Experiment 1 finds that a happy mood can lead to greater message scrutiny than a neutral mood when the message is not mood threatening. Experiment 2 finds that a happy mood leads to greater message scrutiny than a sad mood when an uplifting message is encountered, but to less message scrutiny when a depressing message is encountered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood regulation in depression: Differential effects of distraction and recall of happy memories on sad mood.

Recent research suggests that the recall of positive memories plays an important role in mood regulation. In this study, the authors examined the ability of currently depressed, formerly depressed, and never-depressed participants to regulate sad mood through the recall of positive memories or through distraction. Although improvement in mood was found for all participants in response to distraction, under instructions to recall positive memories, never-depressed participants' moods improved, whereas formerly depressed participants' sad moods remained unchanged. It is important to note that depressed participants exhibited a worsening of their sad moods after recalling positive memories. These results suggest both that depression is associated with an impaired ability to use positive recall to regulate a sad mood and that this impairment continues to be evident following recovery. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Velten Mood Induction Procedure: Effects on mood and memory.

R. O. Frost et al (see record 1980-01011-001) claim that self-devaluative aspects of the Velton Mood Induction Procedure (VMIP) do not lower mood or otherwise mimic depression but that the elements of the VMIP that suggest depression-related somatic states do. An experiment involving 52 undergraduates indicated that both aspects of the VMIP have a powerful impact on mood and that the self-devaluation statements have a priming effect on the accessibility of positive and negative memories different from that of the VMIP elation statements. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood induction with older adults: A tool for investigating effects of depressed mood.

To validate the use of mood induction with older adults, 22 older participants receiving a depressed mood induction were compared with 20 controls and 17 older persons with high Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) scores. The mood induction procedure, using self-referent statements and music, changed Depressive Adjective Checklist and CES-D scores in each of 2 sessions 1 week apart. Findings indicated that the use of mood induction procedures with older adults can provide experimental control of mood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On being tense yet tolerant: The paradoxical effects of trait anxiety and aversive mood on intergroup judgments.

This study evaluated whether aversive affect increased, decreased, or had no effect on the negativity of intergroup judgments, depending on level of trait anxiety and the kind of processing strategy adopted by judges. Following negative affect induction, high or low trait-anxious White participants made judgments and recalled information about a threatening Black empowerment group. A negative affect-congruent bias in judgments was found but only for more self-confident, low trait-anxious people. In contrast, aversive affect produced more positive judgments and recall in high trait-anxious people, suggesting a motivated strategy. Finally, affect had no effect on highly crystallized judgments related to well-learned general civil rights principles. The findings are interpreted in terms of J. P. Forgas's (1995) multiprocess affect infusion model, and their implications for research on the dynamics of intergroup discrimination and prejudice are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood, memory, and social judgments in children.

The influence of positive and negative moods on children's recall and recognition memory and impression-formation judgments was investigated in a two-list experimental design. A total of 161 schoolchildren, 8 to 10 years old, were presented with audiovisual information containing positive and negative details about 2 target children. Each presentation was preceded by happy or sad mood manipulations. One day later, the children were again placed in a happy or sad mood, and their recall and recognition memory and impression-formation judgments were assessed. Results showed that memory was better when (a) the children felt happy during encoding, retrieval, or both; (b) the material was incongruent with learning mood; (c) the 2 target characters were encountered in contrasting rather than in matching mood states; and (d) recall mood matched encoding mood. A happy mood increased the extremity of both positive and negative impression-formation judgments. Results are contrasted with experimental data obtained with normal or depressed adults, and implications are considered for contemporary theories of mood effects on cognition and for social-developmental research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of attitude and experience on judgments of controversial statements.

"An interpretation of adaptation-level theory suggests that judgment of controversial statements is determined by the judge's relevant stimulus history. Among the implications of this suggestion are (a) a dependence of absolute extremity judgments upon the attitude of the judge, and (b) a potential distortion of attitude scores due to the item order on a questionnaire… . In general, findings are consistent with adaptation-level theory, provided that experiences are weighted differently according to (a) their degree of remoteness in time, and (b) the nature of the judgment task." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reasoning and the weighting of attributes in attitude judgments.

Two experiments examined processes by which analyzing reasons may influence attitude judgments. Participants made multiple liking judgments on sets of stimuli that varied along 6 a priori dimensions. In Study 1, the stimulus set consisted of 64 cartoon faces with 6 binary-valued attributes (e.g., a straight vs a crooked nose). In Study 2, the stimuli were 60 digitized photographs from a college yearbook that varied along 6 dimensions uncovered through multidimensional scaling. In each experiment, half of the participants were instructed to think about the reasons why they liked each face before making their liking rating. Participants' multiple liking ratings were then regressed on the dimension values to determine how they weighted each dimension in their liking judgments. The results support a process whereby reasoning leads to increased variability and inconsistency in the weighting of stimulus information. Wilson's model of the disruptive effects of reasoning on attitude judgments ( e.g., T. D. Wilson, D. S. Dunn, D. Kraft, & D. J. Lisle, 1989 ) is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood and memory under natural conditions: Evidence for mood incongruent recall.

The effect of mood on memory was studied under natural conditions in 2 field quasi-experiments. In both, Ss in happy moods recalled autobiographical memories that were more negative than were memories recalled by subjects in bad moods, a phenomenon termed mood incongruent recall. Three subsequent laboratory experiments are reported that suggest that mood incongruent recall is a reliable phenomenon, occurring when subjects are unaware that their moods are relevant to the experiment. Mood incongruent recall is hypothesized to be related to mood regulation. The implications of these findings for the relation between mood and memory, for mood congruent recall, for laboratory mood inductions, and for self-regulation of mood and depression are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Us and them: Mood effects on intergroup discrimination.

What is the role of mood in intergroup discrimination? In 3 experiments, people in happy, sad, or neutral moods made reward allocation decisions and formed impressions about in-group and out-group members. When the personal relevance of the group was low, positive mood resulted in faster, more heuristic processing and greater intergroup discrimination. In contrast, when group relevance was high, it was negative mood that enhanced intergroup discrimination following slower, motivated processing, as predicted by the recent Affect Infusion Model (J. P. Forgas, 1995). Reaction time data and mediational analyses confirmed these processing differences. Results are interpreted as evidence for mood-induced selectivity in the way people process information about groups. The implications of the findings for real-life intergroup behavior and for contemporary affect-cognition theories are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood and the mundane: Relations between daily life events and self-reported mood.

Daily mood ratings and corresponding diary entries were studied to determine relations between common events and two independent mood factors—Positive Affect (PA) and Negative Affect (NA)—in a sample of 18 young adults over a 3-month period. In an extension of findings from earlier interindividual studies, PA (enthusiastic, delighted vs. sluggish, drowsy) was found to be associated with a wide range of daily events, whereas fewer correlations were found between these events and NA (distressed, nervous, angry vs. calm, relaxed). The relation between high PA and reported social interactions (particularly physically active social events) was especially robust, and its effects were noted repeatedly; NA was unrelated to social activity. As hypothesized, high NA was associated with physical problems; contrary to expectations, low PA also tended to be correlated with health complaints. Overall, the results reaffirm the importance of assessing NA and PA independently and suggest that PA is an interesting and important dimension that deserves more research attention. Theoretical considerations and clinical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The mere perception of elaboration creates attitude certainty: Exploring the thoughtfulness heuristic.

Attitude theory has long proposed a mechanism through which antecedents of message elaboration produce attitude strength consequences. However, little direct evidence exists for the intervening process. The proposed thoughtfulness heuristic holds that perceiving that more thought has taken place leads to greater attitude certainty. Two roles were established for this heuristic: first as a mediator of the impact of antecedents of elaboration on attitude certainty and second as a way to influence attitude certainty independent of actual elaboration. In Studies 1 and 2, antecedents of elaboration (need for cognition, distraction) impacted attitude certainty because they impacted the actual amount of processing, which in turn affected perceptions of the amount of processing. In Studies 3 and 4, a manipulation of perceived thought impacted certainty independent of actual thought (i.e., after thinking had already occurred). Furthermore, the thoughtfulness heuristic was shown to influence behavioral intentions, establishing perceived amount of processing as both a mediator and an independent cause of attitude strength consequences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood theme and bizarreness of delusions in schizophrenia and mood psychosis.

Narratives of the delusions of 83 schizophrenic and 55 nonschizophrenic Ss were categorized as of 1 or more of 12 types. Narratives were also independently assessed along dimensional scales of bizarreness and mood theme. Schneiderian and grandiose types were found to be more common in schizophrenics and mood psychotics, respectively. Dimensional measures showed that the delusions of schizophrenics were more unlikely and that those of mood psychotics had a stronger mood theme. Regression analysis determined that Schneiderian delusions and a dimensional estimate of mood theme best differentiated schizophrenics from mood psychotics. Assessments along dimensions of other parameters, particularly those represented by Schneiderian delusions, may further discriminate the functional psychoses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Source entitativity and the elaboration of persuasive messages: The roles of perceived efficacy and message discrepancy.

Compared with nonentitative groups, entitative targets are considered to elicit more elaborative processing because of the singularity or unity they represent. However, when groups serve as sources of persuasive messages, other dynamics may operate. The current research suggests that entitativity is intrinsically linked to perceptions of a group’s efficacy related to the advocacy, and this efficacy combines with the position of the appeal to determine message elaboration. When messages are counterattitudinal, entitative (efficacious) sources should elicit greater processing than nonentitative groups because of concern that the entitative sources may be more likely to bring about the negative outcomes proposed. However, when appeals are proattitudinal, sources low in entitativity (nonefficacious) should initiate more elaboration due to concern that they may be unlikely to facilitate the positive outcomes proposed. These hypotheses were supported in a series of studies. Preliminary studies established the entitativity–efficacy relation (Studies 1A and 1B). Primary persuasion studies showed that manipulations of source entitativity (Studies 2 and 3) and source efficacy (Studies 4A and 4B) have opposite effects on processing as a function of message discrepancy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)