Mood and Persuasion: Affective States Influence the Processing of Persuasive Communications

Publisher Summary

This chapter outlines different mediating processes that are consistent with the current theory on the interplay of emotion and cognition, and evaluates these assumptions in the light of the available evidence. According to the “Cognitive response” approach, recipients of a persuasive communication may arrive at an attitude judgment by one of the two ways, and may consider the content of the message, paying close attention to the implications of the presented arguments. The recipients may not engage in a thorough consideration of message content, but may rely on simple cues, such as the communicator's prestige or likableness. For the content-oriented, processing strategy is “systematic processing” or the “central route to persuasion”. Current theorizing on the interplay of affect and cognition suggests at least five ways in which the recipients' mood may influence persuasion processes within this general framework. Each of these possibilities has different implications for recipients' attitude change, their cognitive responses to the message, and their evaluation of the presented arguments.