The Answer Is in the Question? Mood Effects on Processing Verbal Information and Impression Formation

Can good or bad mood influence how people process verbal information about others? Based on affect-cognition theories, this experiment predicted and found that the way a question is phrased has a greater influence on impressions than actual answers when judges are experiencing a negative rather than a neutral or positive mood. After an audiovisual mood induction, participants witnessed interview questions and responses by two target characters. The same level of extroversion was communicated, either by affirmative responses to questions about extraversion, or by negative responses to questions about introversion. Question format had a significant influence on impressions in negative mood but not in neutral or positive mood. The implications of these results for interpreting linguistic information in everyday social life are considered, and their relevance to contemporary affect-cognition theorizing is discussed.