Informational Properties of Anxiety and Sadness, and Displaced Coping

Replicating Raghunathan and Pham (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="rf13">1999</xref>), results from two experiments confirm that while anxiety triggers a preference for options that are safer and provide a sense of control, sadness triggers a preference for options that are more rewarding and comforting. Results also indicate that these effects are driven by an affect-as-information process and are most pervasive when the source of anxiety or sadness is not salient. Finally, our results document a previously unrecognized phenomenon we term displaced coping, wherein affective states whose source is salient influence decisions that are seemingly-but not directly-related to the source of these affective states. (c) 2006 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..