Walking the Tightrope Between Feeling Good and Being Accurate: Mood-As-A-Resource in Processing Persuasive Messages

ABSTRACT - This paper examines the role of mood in processing self-relevant information. We argue that positive mood acts as a resource, enabling people to better cope with negative, but useful, information. In contrast, negative mood makes the goal of terminating the aversive mood-state more important, thus leading people to focus more on positive information. Consistent with this prediction, when asked to read an essay on caffeine consumption, negative mood subjects focused more on positive (vs. negative) effects of caffeine, while those in positive moods showed no such bias. We discuss the theoretical contributions of this research and derive some important marketing implications.



Citation:

Raj Raghunathan and Yaacov Trope (2001) ,"Walking the Tightrope Between Feeling Good and Being Accurate: Mood-As-A-Resource in Processing Persuasive Messages", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 28, eds. Mary C. Gilly and Joan Meyers-Levy, Valdosta, GA : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 114.

Advances in Consumer Research Volume 28, 2001     Page 114

WALKING THE TIGHTROPE BETWEEN FEELING GOOD AND BEING ACCURATE: MOOD-AS-A-RESOURCE IN PROCESSING PERSUASIVE MESSAGES

Raj Raghunathan, New York University

Yaacov Trope, New York University

ABSTRACT -

This paper examines the role of mood in processing self-relevant information. We argue that positive mood acts as a resource, enabling people to better cope with negative, but useful, information. In contrast, negative mood makes the goal of terminating the aversive mood-state more important, thus leading people to focus more on positive information. Consistent with this prediction, when asked to read an essay on caffeine consumption, negative mood subjects focused more on positive (vs. negative) effects of caffeine, while those in positive moods showed no such bias. We discuss the theoretical contributions of this research and derive some important marketing implications.

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Authors

Raj Raghunathan, New York University
Yaacov Trope, New York University



Volume

NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 28 | 2001



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