Mood and positive testing in social interaction

Why, how and when does mood influence positive testing, that is, the selection of matching questions, when people actively search for information about others they meet? In four experiments, we demonstrated that happy mood increased positive testing compared to sad mood. Experiment 1 showed that happy participants were more strongly motivated to get along and smooth the interaction to come than sad ones. In addition, evidence was provided by a mediation analysis that happy mood increased the preference for positive testing because of such an improved motivation to get along. Furthermore, Experiment 2 showed that happy participants' preference for positive testing vanished when cognitive resources were limited. The preference for positive testing appeared under happy mood only when the context made salient the goal to get along (Experiments 3 and 4). Together, these results suggest that positive testing in a social-hypothesis testing paradigm may have social values. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  Yaacov Trope,et al.  Information-gathering strategies in hypothesis-testing , 1983 .

[2]  Y. Kashima,et al.  Stereotypes help people connect with others in the community: a situated functional analysis of the stereotype consistency bias in communication. , 2007, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[3]  S. Gangestad,et al.  On the nature of self-monitoring: matters of assessment, matters of validity. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[4]  EDWARD E. JONES,et al.  Interpreting Interpersonal Behavior: The Effects of Expectancies , 1986, Science.

[5]  Vincent Yzerbyt,et al.  Social Judgeability and the Dilution of Stereotypes: The Impact of the Nature and Sequence of Information , 1997 .

[6]  J. Klayman,et al.  Hypothesis testing in rule discovery: Strategy, structure, and content. , 1989 .

[7]  G. Weary,et al.  The Effects of Depression on Impression Formation: The Role of Trait and Category Diagnosticity , 2000 .

[8]  Why and under what circumstances is a hypothesis-consistent testing strategy preferred in interviews? , 1998 .

[9]  Silvia Krauth‐Gruber,et al.  Affect and Stereotypic Thinking: A Test of the Mood-and-General-Knowledge Model , 2000 .

[10]  L. Isbell,et al.  Not all happy people are lazy or stupid: Evidence of systematic processing in happy moods , 2004 .

[11]  Cameron Anderson,et al.  Power, Approach, and Inhibition , 2003 .

[12]  J. Klayman.  Varieties of Confirmation Bias , 1995 .

[13]  C. Carver,et al.  Effects of good versus bad mood and optimistic versus pessimistic outlook on social acceptance versus rejection , 1994 .

[14]  M. Snyder,et al.  Suppression and hypothesis testing: does suppressing stereotypes during interactions help to avoid confirmation biases? , 2003 .

[15]  G. Clore,et al.  How emotions inform judgment and regulate thought , 2007, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[16]  J Friedrich,et al.  Primary error detection and minimization (PEDMIN) strategies in social cognition: a reinterpretation of confirmation bias phenomena. , 1993, Psychological review.

[17]  J. Klayman,et al.  Confirmation, Disconfirmation, and Informa-tion in Hypothesis Testing , 1987 .

[18]  Y. Trope,et al.  Walking the tightrope between feeling good and being accurate: mood as a resource in processing persuasive messages. , 2002, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[19]  C. Neil Macrae,et al.  Changing social stereotypes: The case of the information seeker , 1994 .

[20]  G. A. Kleef,et al.  The influence of power on the information search, impression formation, and demands in negotiation. , 2004 .

[21]  J. House,et al.  Social relationships and health. , 1988, Science.

[22]  Joseph P. Forgas,et al.  On feeling good and being rude: Affective influences on language use and request formulations. , 1999 .

[23]  P. Silvia,et al.  Flexible effects of positive mood on self-focused attention , 2005 .

[24]  F. Strack,et al.  Mood and Persuasion , 1990 .

[25]  S. Kassin,et al.  Behavioral Confirmation in the Interrogation Room: On the Dangers of Presuming Guilt , 2003, Law and human behavior.

[26]  Mark Snyder,et al.  Why Does Behavioral Confirmation Occur? A Functional Perspective on the Role of the Perceiver , 1994 .

[27]  Arthur A. Stukas,et al.  Interpersonal processes: the interplay of cognitive, motivational, and behavioral activities in social interaction. , 1999, Annual review of psychology.

[28]  G. Bodenhausen,et al.  Happiness and stereotypic thinking in social judgment. , 1994 .

[29]  J. Leyens.  Another Look At Confirmatory Strategies During a Real Interview , 1989 .

[30]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[31]  R. Baumeister,et al.  The need to belong: desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. , 1995, Psychological bulletin.

[32]  K. Burns,et al.  The role of affect on the search for global and specific target information , 2005 .

[33]  Jeff T. Larsen,et al.  Can people feel happy and sad at the same time? , 2001, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[34]  R. Nisbett,et al.  The dilution effect: Nondiagnostic information weakens the implications of diagnostic information , 1981, Cognitive Psychology.

[35]  H. Aarts,et al.  Positive affect as implicit motivator: on the nonconscious operation of behavioral goals. , 2005, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[36]  Y. Trope,et al.  Looking for truth in all the wrong places? Asymmetric search of individuating information about stereotyped group members. , 1997, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[37]  R. Nickerson.  Confirmation Bias: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises , 1998 .

[38]  Vanessa M. Patrick,et al.  Psychological Distancing: Why Happiness Helps You See the Big Picture , 2009 .

[39]  Lucy Johnston,et al.  Resisting change: Information-seeking and stereotype change. , 1996 .

[40]  M. Schweitzer,et al.  Feeling and believing: the influence of emotion on trust. , 2003, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[41]  E. Hirt,et al.  DIAGNOSTIC AND CONFIRMATION STRATEGIES IN TRAIT HYPOTHESIS TESTING , 1990 .

[42]  A. Isen,et al.  Positive affect, cognitive processes, and social behavior. , 1987 .

[43]  A. Labroo,et al.  Be better or be merry: how mood affects self-control. , 2007, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[44]  G. Clore,et al.  Mood and the use of scripts: does a happy mood really lead to mindlessness? , 1996, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[45]  Benoît Dardenne,et al.  Confirmation Bias as a Social Skill , 1995 .

[46]  Susan T. Fiske,et al.  Motivation and Cognition in Social Life: A Social Survival Perspective , 1995 .

[47]  G. Weary,et al.  Depression and Social Information Gathering , 1989 .

[48]  Yaacov Trope,et al.  STEREOTYPE-BIASED SEARCH AND PROCESSING OF INFORMATION ABOUT GROUP MEMBERS , 2004 .

[49]  R. Skov,et al.  Information-gathering processes: Diagnosticity, hypothesis-confirmatory strategies, and perceived hypothesis confirmation. , 1986 .

[50]  Leila T. Worth,et al.  Processing deficits and the mediation of positive affect in persuasion. , 1989, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[51]  Karen Gasper,et al.  Attending to the Big Picture: Mood and Global Versus Local Processing of Visual Information , 2002, Psychological science.

[52]  M. Cunningham.  Does Happiness Mean Friendliness? , 1988, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[53]  William B. Swann,et al.  Confirmatory Search Strategies in Social Interaction: How, When, Why, and With What Consequences , 1987 .

[54]  W. Swann,et al.  Hypothesis-Testing Processes in Social Interaction , 1978 .

[55]  Camiel J. Beukeboom,et al.  Mood and representations of behaviour: The how and why , 2005 .

[56]  Kristopher J Preacher,et al.  Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models , 2008, Behavior research methods.