Effects of mood states on information processing strategies: Two studies of automatic and controlled processing using misattribution paradigms

Abstract

To test the hypothesis that a positive mood facilitates automatic processing and a negative mood facilitates controlled processing, two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, after positive or negative mood was induced, participants rated the attractiveness of products while listening to a music tape that they were told would have the effect of inducing a positive, negative, or neutral mood. As predicted, augmentation effects were clearer in the negative mood condition than in the positive mood condition. In Experiment 2, participants were first presented with lists of names of non-famous Japanese companies either once or four times. One or two days later, they were presented with these names again, together with new names, and were asked to judge whether those names were famous or-non-famous. As predicted, subjects in a positive mood showed more false fame judgments than those in a negative mood because those in a positive mood did not control their feeling of familiarity correctly. These results indicated that those in positive moods are more likely to engage in automatic processing.