Abstract
Whereas previous findings suggest that mood alters information processing style judgment and strategic behavior, in the present article, the hypothesis is tested that moods influence our non-conscious behavior. In the first study, we observed a correlation between participants' mood and their non-conscious mimicry of a person on television. In the second study, participants were put in either a positive or negative mood and afterwards they watched a video comprising of two episodes, one with a pen-playing experimenter, and one with a non-pen-playing experimenter. Participants were videotaped to see whether they would mimic the pen-playing experimenter. As predicted, we found that only participants in a positive mood mimic the confederate's behavior. Finally, tentative evidence suggesting that the effect of mood on mimicry is mediated by cognitive processing style is discussed. These results support a functional explanation for the effects of mood on information processing and behavior.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 426-437 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Social Cognition |
Volume | 24 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2006 |