MOOD STATES INFLUENCE THE PRODUCTION OF PERSUASIVE ARGUMENTS

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 i ndividuals in a happy (as opposed to sad) mood produce more original a nd more persuasive arguments, especially when asked to advocate an unf amiliar (i.e., counterattitudinal) position. Eighty-seven college stud ents were put in a happy or sad mood and asked to write a proattitudin al or a counterattitudinal essay on one of two topics. Happy subjects generally rated their own essays as being more persuasive than sad sub jects did. External ratings revealed, however, that happy subjects' es says were judged to be more persuasive when they were counter-attitudi nal but not when proattitudinal. No mood effects on various measures o f originality were found. Thus support for the hypothesis was found wi th respect to judged persuasiveness but not to originality. Results ar e discussed within the framework of models of mood and cognition.