Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Submit your manuscript through SAGETRACK

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Communication Research
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by BOHNER, G.
Right arrow Articles by SCHWARZ, N.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Mood States Influence the Production of Persuasive Arguments

GERD BOHNER

NORBERT SCHWARZ

This study examined the impact of mood on the production of persuasive arguments. Research demonstrates that a happy (as opposed to neutral or sad) mood often leads to less systematic information processing but to greater creativity in production tasks. It was hypothesized that individuals in a happy (as opposed to sad) mood produce more original and more persuasive arguments, especially when asked to advocate an unfamiliar (i.e., counterattitudinal) position. Eighty-seven college students were put in a happy or sad mood and asked to write a proattitudinal or a counterattitudinal essay on one of two topics. Happy subjects generally rated their own essays as being more persuasive than sad subjects did. External ratings revealed, however, that happy subjects' essays were judged to be more persuasive when they were counter-attitudinal but not when proattitudinal. No mood effects on various measures of originality were found. Thus support for the hypothesis was found with respect to judged persuasiveness but not to originality. Results are discussed within the framework of models of mood and cognition.

Communication Research, Vol. 20, No. 5, 696-722 (1993)
DOI: 10.1177/009365093020005004
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?