Mood influences not only what we think and do, but also HOW we think.
Feeling good seems to produce a thinking style that gives greater rein to
our internal thoughts and ideas. We tend to pay less attention to external
information. In contrast, when in a bad mood we pay more attention to what
is going on outside of us. Positive moods tell us that the environment is
safe and we can rely on our existing knowledge. A negative mood is more like
an alarm signal, alerting us that the environment is potentially dangerous
and that we need to pay close attention to external information. Feeling
good or feeling bad makes us deal very differently with the same social
situation.
Perhaps the most fundamental influence that moods have is on our
memories. People in a happy mood remember more positive memories from their
childhood, recall more happy episodes from the previous week and have better
memories for words they have learned in a similar mood state. This is why
when we are in a good mood all seems well with the world and we
predominantly think about and remember happy, joyful experiences. When we
are in a bad mood, in contrast, we tend to think negatively, which depresses
us even further.
Becoming aware of these subtle memory effects is an important component
of emotional intelligence. However, these effects are not universal. They
are most likely to occur when people think in an open, constructive manner.
Mood effects can be quite easily eliminated and even reversed. For example,
when people’s attention is directed toward themselves, they become more
aware of their own moods and this simple manipulation often seems enough to
reduce mood congruency.
Thus, simply becoming aware of such mood effects is in itself an
important step towards increasing both emotional intelligence and happiness.
Once we know how and why these effects occur, we are in a much better
position to predict and manage their consequences.
Moods can also influence many other tasks that require the use of
memory-based ideas. For example, when people are asked to look at pictures
depicting ambiguous social scenes (such as two people having an animated
conversation), happy persons construct more cheerful, positive stories, and
those in a sad mood respond by constructing negative stories. Ultimately,
mood can also impact on real social judgments about people.
For example, observing others and interpreting what their actions mean is
one of the most fundamental judgmental tasks we face in everyday life. Mood
seems to have a profound influence even on such very basic judgments. We
looked at this possibility by asking happy or sad participants to observe
and rate their own and their partner’s behaviors on a videotaped social
encounter. As predicted, happy people "saw" significantly more positive,
skilled behaviors and fewer negative, unskilled behaviors both in themselves
and in their partners than did sad subjects. These effects occur because
mood directly influences the kinds of thoughts and memories that come to
mind as observers try to interpret complex and inherently ambiguous social
behaviors.
In other words, the same smile that is seen as warm and friendly by a
person in a good mood can easily can be judged as condescending or awkward
by somebody in a bad mood. These kinds of mood effects also influence how we
interpret our own behaviors and our successes and failures in real-life
tasks such as passing an exam. Part of the reason for these judgmental
effects may be that people also tend to selectively focus on mood-consistent
rather than mood-inconsistent information. Thus, mood appears to influence
what we notice, what we learn, what we remember, and, ultimately, the kinds
of judgments and decisions we make. However, this kind of spontaneous mood
infusion is rather a fragile process and can be reversed easily once people
become aware of their mood states. An important aspect of emotional
intelligence is thus to know how, when, and why these effects occur.
A surprising result confirmed in recent research is that mood has
significantly greater influence when people engage in more extensive and
elaborate thinking that increases the opportunity of using memory-based
information. Happy participants form more positive impressions than do sad
participants. But even more interesting, the more we need to think about
something, the more likely that mood may influence our thoughts, memories,
and, eventually, our responses. The same kind of results also are obtained
when people make judgments about themselves: Mood has a greater influence
when judging less familiar, peripheral aspects of the self, but these
effects are reduced when central, familiar features are judged.
What happens when we are thinking about our intimate partners and
relationships? Common sense suggests that such personal and highly familiar
judgments should be more resistant to mood. In fact, the opposite seems to
be the case. Surprisingly, when we asked people who were feeling happy or
sad to think about their own intimate relationships, mood effects were
consistently greater when more extensive thinking was required to deal with
more complex and serious rather than simple, everyday interpersonal issues.
In a way, the more we know about a person or an issue, the richer and more
extensive the number of relevant memories we can call upon, and the more
likely that mood may have a strong selective influence on what comes to mind
and the kind of judgments we make.
When feeling good, we selectively access memories about happy, positive
events and the relationship seems fabulous. When in a negative mood, all
that comes to mind is problems and difficulties and the same relationship
seems hardly worth having.
