Abstract

Two experiments were carried out to search for an explanation of mood effect on judgment. Some participants in Experiment 1 were made to feel good or bad for being in a cosy or dirty room. Some of them were made to be aware or unaware of the reason of their feeling; the others were instructed to be careful not to be influenced by their mood in their judgments on their general well-being and concrete issues (satisfaction of their residence and allowance). Mood effect was found in the Unawareness condition; clear correction effect in the Warning condition; tendency for correction effect in the Awareness condition. In Experiment 2, stronger emotions were induced by giving participants a praise and a book coupon(positive emotion) or an insult(negative emotion). Correction effect was found in both Clear and Weak Awareness conditions. These results were found for both concrete and global issues in both experiments. 'Emotional Set' hypothesis was proposed which maintains that an emotional state should form a set(perhaps in amygdala, based on LeDoux' theory) to color the evaluation of a target. Further research on the correction effect was discussed.