Mood as Information: 20 Years Later

Learning that Schwarz and Clore (1983) had been nominated as a "modern classic" was a great mood induction, one that brightened our day even though the cause was salient. However, responding to the editors' request to tell the "inside story" of the studies we conducted 2 decades ago turned out to be a challenging exercise in collaborative reconstructive memory. In retrospect, the "story" of our studies seems utterly smooth and our failure to remember disappointing pretests, or bad results that sent us back to the drawing board, stands in stark contrast to our memories of other lines of research, making us wonder if we forgot all the complications or were indeed just plain lucky. We first summarize our recollections and subsequently address theoretical developments.