Affect and persuasion: mood effects on the processing of message content and context cues and on subsequent behavior

Abstract

Es werden zwei Experimente vorgestellt, die den Einfluß der Stimmung eines Rezipienten auf die Verarbeitung der alltäglichen Kommunikation und sein späteres Verhalten untersuchen. Es zeigt sich, daß eine positive Stimmung die Motivation einer Person verringert, systematisch den Inhalt einer Mitteilung als auch damit im Zusammenhang stehende Informationen zu verarbeiten. Ihr Verhalten widerspiegelt weniger die Differenzierungen im Mitteilungsinhalt als das Verhalten von Personen in neutraler Stimmung. (psz)

'Two experiments are reported examining the impact of recipient's mood on the processing of simple, everyday persuasive communications and on subsequent behavior. Consistent with the general assumption that affective states may inform an individual about the state of its current environment, it was found that affective states may inform an individual about the state of its current environment, it was found that positive (as compared to neutral or negative) mood reduced subjects' motivation to systematically process both content information and contextual cues. Specifically, experiment 1 demonstrated that, in a field setting, the behavior of subjects who had been put in a good mood was less likely to reflect differences in message content than the behavior of neutral mood subjects. Experiment 2 replicated and extended this finding, showing that good mood subject's behavior was uninfluenced by content as well as context information, whereas bad mood subjects did make use of both types of information. Subject's cognitive responses paralleled the behavioral data. The results are discussed in terms of their compatibility with contemporary models of persuasion, and their implications for future research on mood and persuasion and on the interplay of affect and cognition in general are considered.' (author's abstract)