Journal of Personality and Social Psycholology, 1991 Nov;61(5):708-20

Affective influences on partner choice:role of mood in social decisions*

Forgas JP
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Syndney, Australia.

Does mood influence our information search and decision strategies when choosing a partner? In Experiment 1 (N = 60), sad Ss preferred rewarding to competent partners and remembered information supporting that choice better. In Experiment 2 (N = 96), mood effects on information selectivity, decision speed, and processing strategy in partner choices were found. In Experiment 3 (N = 42), a computerized stimulus presentation revealed mood-induced differences in the latency, self-exposure, and eventual recall of interpersonal information. These results are interpreted as evidence for mood-induced selectivity in information search and decision strategies when making realistic partner choices. The implications of the findings for research on interpersonal relations and for contemporary affect-cognition theories are considered.

* Reproduced with permission of the APA - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology