Toward Understanding the Role of Affect in Social Thinking and Behavior

No doubt refering to society gossip, Oscar Wilde once said the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. Presumably this dictum applies as much to psychological theories as to anything else. Writing article in Psychological Inquiry is good way to avoid the terrible fate of not being talked about. I am most grateful to the editors for this opportunity, and I am greatly indebted to the commentators for their most useful and constructive ideas. Of course, being talked about is not always unmitigated pleasure either, as Oscar Wilde surely knew better than most. Reading these commentaries, I feel bit like somebody at cocktail party who has just been the subject of lot of society gossip: somewhat embarrassed but certainly excited and stimulated. To persist with the cocktail party metaphor bit longer, I was of course very pleased to overhear so many kind and encouraging comments above the din of the conversation. Maybe my hearing could have been bit selective, but even so, it was nice to have the AIM and our research described as right on target (Bless), a new state-of-the art review (Fiedler), thoughtful essay and a generative contribution (Keltner, Anderson, & Gonzaga) that takes the field in new directions (Clore & Tamir) and accounts admirably for mood effects on memory (Macaulay & Eich). Commentators note important contributions to our understanding of social behavior (Schwarz), the approach is ... valuable one (Haidt), an impressive range of empirical evidence (Perrott & Bodenhausen), highly integrative theory building (Detweiler-Bedell & Salovey), a unique contribution (Martin, Shelton, & Shrira), compelling evidence (Manstead & van der Pligt), and so on. Of course, praise is not what commentaries in Psychological Inquiry are all about. The comments raised number of interesting and exciting issues about affect research in general and our approach in particular. With so many comments, record for Psychological Inquiry, I cannot hope to respond to every point in detail. Rather, I organize my response around some main themes raised in the commentaries. In the process, I hope to explain and clarify issues were perhaps not as clear in the article as they could have been.