ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a conceptual argument, and empirical research indicating that in many situations both negative and positive mood perform important regulatory functions, automatically triggering information processing strategies that are adaptive in a given situation. Early theories suggested that positive mood leads to more lazy and less effortful processing, while negative mood promotes effortful and vigilant processing. Eyewitness memory remained less distorted when witnesses received the misleading information in a negative mood, also confirmed by a signal detection analysis. Contemporary theories suggest that affective states influence cognition and behavior in two fundamental ways. Informational effect occurs when an affective state directly influences the valence and content of cognition and behavior, promoting access to affect-congruent constructs and ideas. Affect may also regulate our social influence strategies such as persuasion. The fundamental attribution error (FAE) or 'dispositional bias' occurs when judges infer internal causation and ignore situational causes.
