Mood and processing of proattitudinal and counterattitudinal messages

Existing research has established the effects of mood on processing of clearly mood-elevating proattitudinal messages andclearly mood-threatening counterattitudinal messages (i.e.,mood-relevant messages). little is known,however,about mood effects on processing of less mood-elevating proattitudinal messages and less mood-threatening counterattitudinal messages (i.e.,mood-irrelevant messages). the present research tested hypotheses regarding processing of mood-irrelevant messages based on a mood-congruent expectancies approach. specifically,two studies were conducted in which prior attitudes were measured (study 1) or manipulated (study 2). as predicted,results showed higher scrutiny in negative mood given a proattitudinal message and in positive mood given a counterattitudinal message than in negative mood given a counterattitudinal message and in positive mood given a proattitudinal message. discussion focuses on implications regarding the accumulated literature,different accounts proposed to understand mood effects on processing effort,and further research. © 2013 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.