Mood-congruent perceptions of success depend on self-other framing

Research on self-other framing suggests that self-judgements typically neglect information about others and instead use an ambiguous intrapersonal standard, making these judgements susceptible to the influence of mood as predicted by the affect infusion model (Forgas, 1995). Two experiments tested the hypothesis that mood-congruent judgements of personal success occur when these judgements are framed to maintain self-focus but are eliminated when participants first focus on other individuals. In Experiment 1, self-other framing moderated the influence of mood on perceived success for an ambiguous object identification task. Happy participants reported greater perceived success, compared to sad participants, after judging their own success relative to others (self-focused frame) but not after directly judging the success of others (other-focused frame). Experiment 2 replicated these results with students' perceptions of their academic success. These findings suggest that the open, constructive processing accompanying most self-judgements is critical in producing mood-congruent perceptions of personal success.     

Emerging Trends in Health Communication: The Powerful Role of Subjectivism in Moderating the Effectiveness of Persuasive Health Appeals

In this article, we draw from key lessons in social psychology in order to organize emerging trends in health communication. A quarter century ago, Ross and Nisbett (1991) distilled social psychology's major insights into three fundamental principles: situationism, subjectivism, and tension systems. The principle of subjectivism – the idea that to predict and successfully change behavior, we must first appreciate a person's understanding of a given situation – is of particular importance and has the potential to bring together health‐related investigations of (i) message framing, (ii) regulatory focus, (iii) construal level, and (iv) psychological mindset. These lines of research are readily applied to goal setting and self‐regulation, and they illustrate the powerful role of subjectivism in determining the effectiveness of health communication. We summarize this research and discuss how a better appreciation of subjectivism illuminates these investigations and gives rise to a cohesive set of implications for designing more persuasive health appeals.     

Using Message Framing to Promote Social Support in Depression: When Misery Makes Better Company

A depressed person may have particular difficulty obtaining social support unless, as previous research indicates, members of the person’s support network believe that their interactions with the depressed person will be rewarding. Continuing this line of research, two studies investigated how message framing influences perceptions of providing social support to someone diagnosed with depression. In Study 1, participants first evaluated a website created by the research team, which emphasized either the rewards of volunteering to help individuals suffering from depression (gain-framed) or the drawbacks of not volunteering (loss-framed). One week later, participants read a vignette about a friend suffering from depression. Participants initially exposed to the gain-framed website indicated that the friend was in greater need of help, and they expressed stronger intentions to help and maintain supportive contact with the friend. The first phase of Study 2 was identical to the first phase of Study 1. However, a week after evaluating the framed website, participants interacted via instant messaging with a confederate posing as a prospective undergraduate student, who disclosed during the conversation that she had been diagnosed with depression. Participants initially exposed to the gain-framed website indicated greater comfort interacting with the prospective student and greater willingness to engage in follow-up interactions with the student (e.g., exchange emails, talk on the phone) compared to participants initially exposed to the loss-framed website. The implications of these findings for increasing the provision of social support to individuals with depression are discussed.