Affective and semantic priming: Effects of mood on category accessibility and inference

Abstract

When a person can be described by both a positive and a negative trait, a perceiver's mood may influence which trait category is accessed for subsequent inferences about the person's behavior. A positive mood should prime the positive trait category and activate knowledge associated with it. As a result, the person should be perceived as more likely to engage in behaviors implied by the positive trait category. Similar predictions can be made about the effects of negative mood. Two studies tested these hypotheses. In Study 1, positive, neutral, or negative moods were induced through exposure to brief stories with happy, neutral, or sad content. Then, in an allegedly unrelated experiment, subjects read about four stimulus persons, each described by a positive and a negative trait category (e.g., moody and warm), and rated the likelihood that the targets would engage in behaviors applicable to the positive trait, behaviors applicable to the negative trait, and behaviors that were simply positive and negative but not applicable to either trait. Positive mood increased the likelihood estimates of behaviors applicable to the positive trait category, while negative moods increased the likelihood estimates of behaviors applicable to the negative trait category. The likelihood estimates for behavior nonapplicable to either trait category were unaffected by subjects' mood. Study 2, using a facial feedback technique and using somewhat richer stimuli, replicated the findings of Study 1 for negative mood and suggests that the effect is mediated by moods increasing the accessibility of mood congruent trait categories. The implications of the results for research on category accessibility and on moods are discussed.