Positive mood can increase or decrease message scrutiny: The hedonic contingency view of mood and message processing.

Wegener, Duane T., Petty, Richard E., Smith, Stephen M.·1995·Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
DOI 10.1037//0022-3514.69.1.5

Abstract

Currently dominant explanations of mood effects on persuasive message processing (i.e., cognitive capacity and feelings as information) predict that happy moods lead to less message scrutiny than neutral or sad moods. The hedonic contingency view (D. T. Wegener & R. E. Petty, 1994) predicts that happy moods can sometimes be associated with greater message processing activity because people in a happy mood are more attentive than neutral or sad people to the hedonic consequences of their actions. Consistent with this view, Experiment 1 finds that a happy mood can lead to greater message scrutiny than a neutral mood when the message is not mood threatening. Experiment 2 finds that a happy mood leads to greater message scrutiny than a sad mood when an uplifting message is encountered, but to less message scrutiny when a depressing message is encountered.

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    Kahneman, Daniel, Frederick, Shane · 2002 · Heuristics and Biases
  3. The Role of Emotions in Marketing
    Bagozzi, R. P., Gopinath, M., Nyer, P. U. · 1999 · Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
  4. The Affect Heuristic
    Slovic, Paul, Finucane, Melissa, Peters, Ellen, MacGregor, Donald G. · 2002 · Heuristics and Biases
  5. ATTITUDES AND ATTITUDE CHANGE
    Petty, Richard E., Wegener, Duane T., Fabrigar, Leandre R. · 1997 · Annual Review of Psychology

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Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.

This page
CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Positive mood can increase or decrease message scrutiny: The hedonic contingency view of mood and message processing. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1037//0022-3514.69.1.5
The paper
Wegener, D. T., Petty, R. E., & Smith, S. M. (1995). Positive mood can increase or decrease message scrutiny: The hedonic contingency view of mood and message processing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.69.1.5

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