Effects of emotional state on behavioral responsiveness to personal risk feedback

The influence of incidental emotion on responsiveness to risk feedback was investigated. One hundred and eighty-seven male and female undergraduate students experienced a film emotion induction procedure to elicit happiness, sadness, or neutral affect. They then received false feedback indicating that their risk of getting a fictional type of influenza was high or low, and were given the chance to obtain more information about this type of flu and how to prevent it. Among low-risk participants, experiencing any emotion (happy or sad) resulted in obtaining more information than those in the neutral condition. Conversely, high-risk participants who experienced any emotion took less information than those in the neutral group. High-risk feedback produced less positive affect, more negative affect and worry, and higher risk perceptions than low-risk feedback. The findings have implications for how threatening risk feedback will affect information seeking behavior in the context of an emotional state.