Moods as spotlights: The influence of mood on accessibility effects.

Abstract

Three studies explore the manner in which one's mood may affect the use and impact of accessible information on judgments. Specifically, the authors demonstrated that positive and negative moods differentially influence the direction of accessibility effects (assimilation, contrast) by determining whether abstract traits or concrete actor-trait links are primed. Study 1 investigated the impact of positive versus negative mood on the judgmental impact of trait-implying behaviors and found that positive moods lead to assimilation and negative moods to contrast. In Study 2, this effect was replicated in a subliminal priming paradigm. In Study 3, it was demonstrated that the type of information activated by trait-implying behaviors is indeed mood dependent, such that abstract trait information is activated in a positive mood, whereas specific actor-trait links are activated in a negative mood.

Social Threats, Happiness, and the Dynamics of Meaning in Life Judgments

“…Those who were not lonely would have perceived the accessible information as personally irrelevant and therefore had no reason to ignore social relationships as a source of MIL (producing a three-way interaction). Second, research suggests that PA leads to assimilation effects (Avramova & Stapel, 2008). Drawing on this work, one might predict that lonely participants in a positive mood would report the lowest levels of MIL after social threats (i.e., another three-way interaction).…”

Turning Art Into Mere Illustration

“…Recent research (Avramova & Stapel, 2008;Förster & Dannenberg, 2010;Friedman, Fishbach, Förster, & Werth, 2003) also points to evidence suggesting that perceptual focus is related to conceptual focus, such that visual focus on a percept might also drive conceptual attention. Notably, however, dual-processing perspectives (Evans, 2008;Förster & Dannenberg, 2010) have not focused on the differential processing of components of a single object (e.g., a visual image) and the influence this might have on the subsequent evaluation of another object (the product or brand associated with the image).…”

The impact of mood states and surprise cues on satisfaction

“…''Eine Kliene Nacht Musik'' by Mozart and ''Adagio for Strings'' by Samuel Barber were selected for the positive and negative mood manipulation respectively. Prior studies demonstrate that these two musical pieces successfully induce positive and negative mood states (e.g., Avramova and Stapel, 2008). A course with four sections was chosen for recruiting participants, and each section had about 30 students.…”