Mood and the impact of category membership and individuating information

We investigated how individuals in different mood states are influenced by category membership information, by individuating information, and by the relation of the two in an impression formation task. Subjects in different mood states received positive or negative individuating information and positive or negative category information about a target person. Experiment 1 indicates that sad subjects were influenced by individuating but not by category membership information. In contrast, happy subjects' judgments reflected the implications of the category information as long as the individuating information was not inconsistent with the category, replicating previous research. This pattern was eliminated, however, when category-inconsistent information was provided, suggesting that happy subjects related the individuating information to the category membership information. Additional experiments show that instructing neutral mood subjects to relate category and individuating information or to focus on the individuating information result in patterns that parallel the judgments of happy and sad subjects, respectively, and that these effects are only obtained when the category information precedes (rather than follows) the individuating information. Extending previous theorizing, we conclude that being in a happy mood increases the likelihood that information is processed in the light of pre-existing general knowledge structures.     

Effects of preexisting moods on observers' reactions to helpful and nonhelpful models

Two experiments investigated the effects of preexisting mood on observers' reactions to helpful and nonhelpful models. The major predictions, derived from a social learning analysis of altruism and Isen's “cognitive loop” hypothesis, where that (1) subjects experiencing positive moods would be prosocially inclined if exposed to a helpful but not a nonhelpful model, and (2) subjects experiencing negative moods would accede to a request for assistance regardless of the type of model they had observed. Introductory psychology students underwent a positive, negative, or (in Experiment 1) a neutral mood induction. They then observed a model respond either positively or negatively to another person's request for assistance, and were subsequently provided an opportunity to assist the help-seeker. The results were highly consistent across the two experiments. The model's behavior had a stronger impact on subjects' help giving than did preexisting moods. However, internal analyses revealed that the intensity of moods that subjects were experiencing affected their reactions to modeling cues. The prosocial behavior of good mood subjects was positively correlated with the positivity of their moods if they had witnessed a helpful but not a nonhelpful model. By contrast, the helpfulness of subjects experiencing negative moods was positively correlated with the negativity of those moods, regardless of the type of model subjects had observed. The implications of these outcomes for the social learning analysis of altruism and the “cognitive loop” hypothesis are discussed.     

The effects of intergroup discrimination and social values on level of self-esteem in the minimal group paradigm

The proposition that individuals engage in intergroup discrimination to increase or maintain positive social identity and a high level of self-esteem has received some empirical support. An attempt was made to extend prior findings by evaluating whether intergroup allocation behaviour consistent with subjects' social values would lead to higher self-esteem than inconsistent allocation behaviour. More specifically, it was predicted that competitive subjects' self-esteem will be higher following discriminatory choices than fair choices and prosocial subjects' self-esteem will be higher following fair choices than discriminatory choices. It was also predicted that after subjects were constrained to make discriminatory choices, competitors' self-esteem would be higher than prosocials' self-esteem and after subjects were constrained to make fair choices, prosocials' self-esteem would be higher than competitors' self-esteem. Experiment I supported the first of these predictions when a measure of personal self-esteem was used as a dependent variable. Experiment 2 attempted to extend the generality of the findings of Experiment 1 by defining and measuring self-esteem in collective terms. The expected prior pattern of results did not occur again. Constraining subjects to make discriminatory choices increased their collective self-esteem regardless of their social values.     

Considering the Knowledge You Have: Effects on Realism in Confidence Judgements

In three experiments, the hypothesis was tested that the realism of subjects' item-specific confidence judgements of their own answers to general knowledge questions would be improved by making the subjects heed content which might be expected to lower their confidence ratings. In each experiment, all subjects answered knowledge questions and then rated their confidence in their chosen answer. Before each question, the subjects in the experimental condition assessed the extent of their knowledge in a knowledge-area encompassing the knowledge question. Experiments 1 and 2 differed only in the design of the knowledge-area assessment scale. In Experiment 3, when making knowledge-area assessments, the subjects were asked to find examples of knowledge they lacked in the knowledge-area. Both Experiments 2 and 3 showed significantly improved realism in the subjects' confidence judgements. An aggregate assessment of the total number of questions believed to be answered correctly, given by the subjects at the end of Experiments 2 and 3, showed underconfidence in the experimental condition, particularly in Experiment 3. The results support the idea that the content active in subjects' memory at the time when confidence judgements are made affects their realism. Furthermore, our results show that the realism of subjects' item-specific confidence judgements can be improved without giving feedback.     

Trait congruence in the study of the cognitive consequences of emotional arousal

This study investigated the possible influence of mood and emotional vulnerability on recall. Mood was induced by projecting highly emotionally laden slides. In the first experiment, 64 female subjects, rated low or high on emotional vulnerability, were tested on recall of mood-congruent, mood-incongruent and neutral words, under mood induction and non-mood induction conditions. Emotionally low-vulnerable subjects recalled more mood-congruent than mood-incongruent words in the mood induction condition, whereas the opposite was the case in the non-mood induction condition. Highly vulnerable subjects recalled more mood-congruent than mood-incongruent words in the non-mood induction condition and fewer mood-congruent words in the mood induction compared with non-mood induction condition. The results are discussed in terms of ‘mood congruence’ (to explain low-vulnerable (LV) subjects' performance) and in terms of ‘trait congruence’ (to explain highly-vulnerable (HV) subjects' performance). In a second experiment, which investigated LV and HV subjects' galvanic skin responses to highly- and low-emotionally laden slides, the highest values were those for HV subjects when exposed to emotional slides. The different activation of LV and HV subjects led us to reconsider previous reasoning regarding mood congruence and trait congruence in the light of the inverted U theory.     

The influence of induced mood on the inhibition of emotional information

The ability to inhibit affective information plays a major role in efficient cognitive processing. In this study the effect of mood induction on inhibitory processing of emotional material was investigated. In Experiment 1, performance on a negative affective priming task (NAP) following negative and positive mood induction (MIP) was compared to a neutral mood condition. Results revealed that, as compared with the neutral mood condition, inhibitory function for affective material was unaffected by negative MIP. However, after the positive MIP, inhibitory processes were significantly impaired. In Experiment 2, we replicated and extended the findings on positive affect and inhibition. The data concerning positive mood fit with the general findings that positive mood often leads to a “loose, flexible” processing mode. The null-finding concerning negative mood and inhibition is discussed in the light of research on inhibition in depression.     

Factor Structure of Temperament in the Third Year of Life

In two procedures, subjects were asked to perform an arithmetic task while hearing distracting auditory messages. Subjects were instructed to ignore these messages. After each trial, subjects judged how disruptive they felt that trial's distractor had been. Subjects' self-reports were unrelated to the actual distraction effect, measured in performance. In Experiment 2, a manipulation of motivation considerably decreased the auditory messages' ability to distract; this large shift in distractor potency was not reflected in subjects' self-reports. In both procedures, subjects' judgments of distraction were not random but were systematically related to parameters of message content, parameters that turned out to be irrelevant for distractor potency.     

The “Black Sheep Effect”: Extremity of judgments towards ingroup members as a function of group identification

The present study proposes an extension to the phenomenon of ingroup favouritism, based on the hypothesis that judgments about ingroup members may be more positive or more negative than judgments about similar outgroup members. It contrasts predictions issued from the complexity-extremity hypothesis (Linville, 1982; Linville and Jones, 1980), from the ingroup favouritism hypothesis (Tajfel, 1982) and from Tesser's (1978; Millar and Tesser, 1986) attitude polarization model. Our main prediction, based on Social Identity Theory, is that judgments about both likeable and unlikeable ingroup members are more extreme than judgments about outgroup members. This phenomenon, coined the Black Sheep Effect, is viewed as due to the relevance that ingroup members'behaviour, as compared to that of outgroup members, has for the subjects' social identity. Three experiments supported our predictions. Experiment I additionally showed that inter-trait correlations were stronger for the ingroup than for the outgroup. Experiment 2 showed that the black sheep effect occurs only when the judgmental cues are relevant for the subjects' social identity, and Experiment 3 showed that levels of information about the target of the judgment were ineffective in generating judgmental extremity. Results are discussed in light of a cognitive-motivational alternative explanation to a purely cognitive interpretation of outgroup homogeneity.     

Visual information for categorizing facial expression of emotions

Two experiments were conducted to reveal the visual information from the face utilized for the categorization of its expression of emotions. In Experiment 1 the subjects produced six schematic faces expressing six basic emotions by using a computer graphics system. By a series of factor analyses on the variables of displacements of feature points for deforming a neutral schematic face to produce the six expressional ones, two factors of ‘curvedness/openness’ and ‘slantedness’ of facial elements were obtained. In Experiment 2 another group of subjects made category judgements of emotions for 72 of the total 216 schematic faces produced in Experiment 1. The relationship between the displacements of feature points in Experiment 1 and subjects' categorical responses in Experiment 2 were examined by canonical discriminant analysis. It was found that the categorical judgements were well explained by two canonical variables whose structures were quite similar to those of factors obtained in Experiment 1. These results indicated that we extract the information of changes in curvedness/openness and slantedness of facial elements among other information on the face for categorizing its expressions of emotions. Lastly, the relationship between the dimensions of visual information obtained here and those of semantic affective meanings found in earlier research was discussed.     

特质性与情境性调节定向匹配效应的一致性

研究试图探讨基于不同性质的调节定向(特质性调节定向和情境性调节定向)而达成的匹配所导致的效应是否一致。实验一、二均采用2(调节定向：促进、防御)×2(信息框架：积极、消极)被试间设计, 分别考察了两种匹配对信息说服效果(包括信息价值评价、情绪强度、行为意向3项指标)的影响。MANOVA检验表明, 实验一中信息价值评价、情绪强度2项指标上的交互作用显著, 实验二中信息价值评价、情绪强度和行为意向3项指标上的交互作用显著; 这表明, 基于两种不同性质的调节定向所达成的匹配在对信息价值评价和情绪强度的影响上具有一致的效应, 但在对行为意向的影响上具有不一致的效应。这一结果对于理解两种不同性质的调节定向之间的差异以及基于两者而达成的两种调节匹配之间的差异具有较为重要的意义。     

Face Recognition as a Function of Judgments of Likability/Unlikability

The relationship between face recognition and likability was investigated in three experiments. Subjects were asked to rate the likability of faces presented to them and then were tested on their ability to recognize the same faces. In Experiments 1 and 2, we used the subjects' individual ratings of likability to form idiocentric groups of faces (two groups, likable/unlikable, Experiment 1; three groups, likable/neutral/unlikable, Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, likable faces were found to be recognized more readily than were faces less likable. Experiment 2 revealed that the faces judged least likable were significantly less well remembered than neutral or more likable faces. In Experiment 3, a group mean for each face's likability was determined, and the faces were divided into quartiles according to the group mean scores. Again, the subjects' recognition responses for unlikable faces were at a lower level than for faces rated higher in likability. Experiments 2 and 3 found no difference in recognition memory between neutral and more likable faces. The results confirmed the notion that likability judgments (emotionality) play a mediating role in recognition.     

Distinct pathways to persuasion: The role of affect in message‐framing effects

Health‐promoting messages can be framed in terms of the gains that are associated with healthy behaviour (gain frame) or the losses that are associated with unhealthy behaviour (loss frame). In the present research, we examined the role of positive and negative affect in the persuasive effects of gain‐ and loss‐framed health‐promoting information. Experiment 1 (N = 98) showed that gain‐framed information resulted in higher levels of information acceptance than loss‐framed information and that this effect was mediated by positive affect. The results of Experiment 2 (N = 129) showed that gain‐framed information resulted in higher levels of information acceptance and attitude, an effect that was again mediated by positive affect. In addition, loss‐framed information resulted in more negative affect than gain‐framed information and negative affect increased participants' intention to engage in the healthy behaviour. These results suggest that affect may be of great importance in the persuasion process and may be particularly helpful to explain the underlying mechanisms of message framing effects. The findings also suggest that gain‐ and loss‐framed messages offer distinct pathways to persuasion. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effect of Mood and Social Outlook on Hypothetical Juridic Decisions1

Data are reported for a laboratory experiment which examines both the impact of information about remote social events on judgments of defendants' guilt or innocence in two court cases and the roles of cognitive and affective elements in mediating these judgments. Subjects were exposed to one of four pretested news bulletins which covaried cognitive factors (positive or negative social information) and affective ones (positive or negative mood stimuli). In accord with previous findings, the results indicate that social information and the changes in social outlook that it caused were of primary importance in altering subjects' judgments about defendants. Subjects who heard positive social information in radio newscasts were more lenient in their judgments of defendants than were those who heard negative social information. Additional findings pertaining to the mediators of this effect suggest that positive mood amplified the impact of social information whatever its direction, while negative mood attenuated it.     

The influence of motivational and mood states on visual attention: A quantification of systematic differences and casual changes in subjects' focus of attention

A great number of studies have shown that different motivational and mood states can influence human attentional processes in a variety of ways. Yet, none of these studies have reliably quantified the exact changes of the attentional focus in order to be able to compare attentional performances based on different motivational and mood influences and, beyond that, to evaluate their effectivity. In two studies, we explored subjects' differences in the breadth and distribution of attention as a function of motivational and mood manipulations. In Study 1, motivational orientation was classified in terms of regulatory focus (promotion vs. prevention) and in Study 2, mood was classified in terms of valence (positive vs. negative). Study 1 found a 10% wider distribution of the visual attention in promotion-oriented subjects compared to prevention-oriented ones. The results in Study 2 reveal a widening of the subjects' visual attentional breadth when listening to happy music by 22% and a narrowing by 36% when listening to melancholic music. In total, the findings show that systematic differences and casual changes in the shape and scope of focused attention may be associated with different motivational and mood states.     

Mood in foreign exchange trading: Cognitive processes and performance

This paper examines the effects of mood on the behavior of traders or decision makers in financial markets. Based on a review of the psychological theories and empirical findings which relate mood to decision making and information processing, we derive hypotheses with respect to the impact of good, neutral, and bad moods on the behavior of traders. Two experiments (N=66 and 72) were conducted on an Internet platform which simulated foreign exchange trading based on historical market data. The first experiment manipulated mood using feedback and music whereas the second one asked subjects to read mood-laden statements. It was found that traders in a good mood had an inferior trading performance (losing money) compared to those in a neutral or bad mood (making profit). This is because traders in a good mood made less accurate decisions than those in neutral or bad moods. Those in a bad mood were the most accurate in their decisions but behaved conservatively in their trading. Subjects in a good mood tended to make less accurate decisions though they spent on average at least the same time as the other subjects on information processing and decision-making. They also were over-confident taking unwarranted risks. The studies concluded with insights concerning the effects of mood on choice of trading strategies.     

What do you do when you're happy or blue? Mood,expectancies, and behavioral interest

The effects of induced moods on interest in performing a wide spectrum of behaviors were examined in two experiments. In Experiment 1, subjects who received the Velten Mood Induction elation manipulation indicated significantly greater interest than neutral subjects in social, prosocial, strenuous, leisure, and general activities on a shortened version of the Pleasant Events Schedule. Subjects who received the depression induction indicated lower interest in social, leisure, and strenuous activities. Depressed mood was associated with an interest in sitting and thinking, being alone, and taking a nap, but depression produced no increase in interest in prosocial behavior or in 12 forms of self-gratification. Experiment 2 focused on seven potential mediators in the effects of mood on behavior interests. Following a positive, negative, or neutral mood induction, subjects were asked to record their positive and negative outcome expectancies, positive and negative emotion expectancies, and their self-perceptions of energy, ability, and opportunity for active and passive, social and nonsocial behaviors. Induced elation, depression, and neutral moods again were found to influence interest in both active and passive types of social and nonsocial behaviors. The subjects' expectations of positive outcomes, and to a lesser extent their perceived energy for the behavior, were the strongest mediators of the effect of mood on behavior interests.The present experiments were conducted at Elmhurst College; thanks to Cindy Argianis, Chris Jankowski, and Victoria Mandell for their work in Experiment 1, and to Russell Fett for his help in Experiment 2. Valuable comments on an earlier draft were provided by Henry Adams, Anita Barbee, Katherine Noll, Sid Rosen, and David Shaffer.     

An experimental investigation of the interaction between displays and models in multicriteria decision support

An experiment in multicriteria decision support was conducted that examined two types of information displays, two different multiattribute models and two levels of task complexity in a laboratory setting with students as subjects. The findings focused on the ‘process’ behaviour and the ‘design’ elements of the human-machine interface. Findings concerning the process behaviour suggested that the subjects' actions on data acquisition were guided by their cognitive preference for the attributes, but that the subjects had no discernible search pattern for evaluation. Findings for design included a significant interaction between display and model in weight estimation and assessment. The practical implications for software design are also discussed.