Emotions and Social Judgment

Class 16

Moods and Social Behavior

Anxiety and affiliation

Happiness and helping

Mood and social judgment

Subliminal Priming of Emotions

Midterms

Stanley Schachter:

Anxiety and Affiliation StudiesEnter "Gregor Zilstein"

"Punishment and Learning Study"

Severe Electric Shocks -- but be assured--"No permanent tissue damage" OR

Mild Electric Shocks -- sort of like a light tickling sensation

Please wait while we set up materials.

Would you like to wait alone or with others?

Schachter Measures of Anxiety and Affiliation

1. Anxiety measure

“How do you feel about the prospect of getting shocked?”

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

I enjoy it I dislike it

very much very much

2. Affiliation measure ____ I prefer being alone____ I prefer being with

others ____ I really don’t care

Effects of Anxiety Manipulation on Self-Reported Anxiety

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High Anx. Condition Low Anx. Condition

Anxie

ty R

atin

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Anxiety Condition and Choosing to Be Alone or With Others

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Want to be alone Don't care Want to be withothers

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High Anx. ConditionLow Anx. Condition

Why Might People Facing Threat Seek Out Others?

1. Information

2. Find out if their own reactions are normal

3. Social solidarity—belongingness (attunement?)

Anxiety and Affiliation Follow-on StudiesDo people ONLY seek out information?

a. Will prefer opportunity to be with others, even if not allowed to talk.

b. However, want to talk to:

1. Check out reality of situation2. Gauge normalcy of own responses

Do threatened people want to be with ANY others, or only those in sim. situation?

Do threatened prefer being with non threatened, or being alone

Prefer those in sim. situation

Prefer being alone

Feeling Good and Helping (Alice Isen, 1987)

Does positive mood helping others?

Prior research suggests it does:

Ss in good mood more willing to help Exptr.

Ss in good mood feel more empathy for others

Problems with prior research

Is it really pos. mood, or just arousal?

Help is requested, not spontaneous

Isen conducts studies to better understand mood and helping

Cookie Distribution in Isen “Cookies and Kindness” Study

C C C C C

X X X X X

C C C C C

X X X X X

C = Received Cookie X = Didn’t Receive Cookie

Shaded = asked to help Un-shaded = asked to distract

Percent Willing to Help/Distract Another Student Due to Receiving or Not Receiving a Cookie

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Cookie No Cookie

Perc

ent C

ompl

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Helped Distracted

Note: Percents are not cumulative. Represent compliance within each condition (I.e., graph bar)

Number of Minutes Agreeing to Volunteer Due to Cookie Condition and Task Solicited

0102030405060708090

Cookie No Cookie

Min

utes

Offe

red

Help Distract

Problems with Cookies Study?

Invocation of reciprocity norm: you give me cookie, I owe you

What did it feel like to NOT get a cookie? Maybe effect occurred b/c non-cookie Ss felt rejected

What were Ss’ actual moods? We don’t know

Help is solicited, not spontaneous

Dime in Payphone StudySetting: Shopping Mall

Subjects: Shoppers

Procedure:

1. Confed #1 goes to payphone, leaves or doesn’t leave dime in slot

2. Subject is next person who uses phone

3. If subject completes call AND checks slot, OK

4. Confed #2 walks in front of S, drops papers

Outcome Measure? Does subject help confed pick up papers.

Number of People Helping a Stranger After Finding/Not Finding a Free Dime in a Pay Phone

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Dime No Dime

Perc

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Helped Did Not Help

Emotional Discounting and Judgment (N. Schwarz & G. Clore, 1988)

1. People phoned in diff. parts of USA, asked about life quality

2. In some cases, people first asked “how’s weather out there?”

3. Researchers already know if weather is positive or negative

Weather is pos

Weather is neg

Weather Asked After QOL

Weather asked Before QOL

Life is good Life is so-so

Life is so-so Life is good

People know weather affects mood, and mood affects judgment

When asked about weather, they discount mood effect on QOL

Mood and Social Judgment Study PredictionsMood type Influence on Opinions

Happy Movie More positive opinions

Happy Movie More negative opinions

Aggressive Movie Not sure

Opinion Questions Asked

Political questions

How rate the prime minister? The opposition leader?

Likelihood of future events

Nuclear war, future of the economy

Responsibility and Punishment

Drunk driving, heroin traffic

Quality of own lives

Private, social, working

Opinions Following Movie Viewing

2.5

3

3.54

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Perce

nt Co

mplyi

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Happy MovieAggressive MovieSad MovieControl

The Negative Side of Positive Moods

Bargh & Chartrand:

Mood is "rolling average" of things you encounter, even things you are not aware of.

Subliminal Priming: Presenting stimuli too fast to be consciously perceived, but quick enough to be subliminally perceived (about 60 milliseconds "ms")

Subliminally Priming MoodsBargh & Chartrand, 1996

Ss told: Interested in how fast people can react to visual stimuli.

Procedure

1. Four stimulus words, all of which are:

a. Very Pos: music, friends

b. Mildly pos: clown, parade

c. Very neg: war, cancer

d. Mildly neg: worm, Monday

2. Backward mask: XBMEMENGYRYRBHXM

3. Mood measure

Effect of Subliminal Prime on Mood

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10

Mild Prime Strong Prime

Mo

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Positive PrimeNegative Prime

Subliminal Moods and StereotypingBargh & Chartrand, Study 2

Who are more likely to apply stereotypes?People in good moods?

People in bad moods?Wait and see.

Procedure:

1. Ss subliminally primed with strong pos, strong neg, or neutral words.

2. Ss complete stereotyping task:

John/Jane fed the baby because __________

Sally/Steve changed the motor oil because ______

Effort to "explain away" gender-inconsistent action = stereotyping.

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Negative Prime Neutral Prime Positive Prime

Ste

reo

typ

ing

Effect of Mood on Stereotyping

Why do positive moods --> stereotyping?

Stereotypes are mental short-cuts.

People take short cuts in positive moods.

Do Subliminally Primed Emotions Affect Liking for Things You Consume? Winkielman, Berridge, & Wilbarger, 2005

Midterm Score Distribution