Abstract
To test the hypothesis that positive mood facilitates automatic processing and that negative mood facilitates controlled processeing strategy, two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, after positive or negative mood was induced, subjects rated the attractivenss of products while listening to a music tape which they were told would have the effect of inducing positive, negative, or neutral moods. As predicted, an augmentation effect was clearer in the negative mood condition than in the positive mood condition.
In Experiment 2, subjects were first presented lists of non famous names of Japanese companies either once or four times. Either one or two days later, subjects were presented the names presented before and also new names, and were asked to judge whether those names were famous or non famous. As predicted, subjects in positive mood showed more false fame judgments than those in negative mood because those in positive mood did not control their feeling of familiarity correctly. These results indicated that those in positive moods were likely to engage in an automatic processing strategy.
