Affective Influences on Evaluative Processing

The past three decades have seen considerable debate about affect’s influence on judgment. In three experiments, following manipulations of incidental, integral, and cognitively based affect, positive affect results in more efficient processing while negative affect appears to make judgments both less efficient and more effortful. Affect’s influence is inferred from the consistency of participants’ responses and the pattern of the positive-negative response latency asymmetry reported by Herr and Page, in which positive judgments appear to be relatively effortless and automatic while negative judgments require effortful and controlled processing. Positive affect reduced or eliminated the asymmetry while negative affect exacerbated it. Affect’s influence appears consistent with a view of positive affect-induced processing efficiency.