Mood and Persuasion: Independent Effects of affect before and after Message Processing

THE PRESENCE OF POSITIVE AFFECT during the encoding of a per­ suasive message results in a weaker effect of argument strength on attitudes than the presence of negative affect does; this pattern is reversed, however, when mood is present at judgment (Bless, Mackie , & Schwarz, 1992). These findings can both be explained by the notion that positive mood reduces systematic processing, whereas negativ e mood enhances it (Schwarz, Bless, & Bohner, 1991). Thus, the presence of positive mood during encoding should decrease message elaboration and thereby reduce the impact of argument strength on subsequent judgments (petty & Cacioppo, 1986). In contrast, positive mood during judgment should facilitate the recall of a simplified representation of the message, whereas negative mood during judgment should facilitate the recall of a detailed representation of the message. The former process is likely to result in more extreme judgments (LinviIIe & Jones, 1980); thus, judgments that are made in a positive mood should reflect argu­ ment strength to a greater degree than judgments that are made in a nega­ tive mood. In the present study we further explored the effects of mood on elabora­ tion and judgment, using a different persuasive message and two neutral­ mood control conditions. The subjects were 104 students at the University of Mannheim, Germany. The design was a 2 X 2 X 2 (Time of Mood Induction: exposure, judgment X Mood: happy, sad X Arguments: strong, weak) facto­ rial, plus two control conditions. To induce mood we asked the subjects in