Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The joint influence of mood and a cognitively demanding task on risk-taking

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Motivation and Emotion Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study investigates a mood regulation-based reconciliation of prior findings in the mood maintenance and information processes literatures about the impact of negative mood state on risktaking judgment. Participants were administered a negative mood state induction using a standardized film clip procedure and subsequently completed a measure of risk-taking judgment under one of three conditions: (1) immediately following the mood induction, (2) following a 5 min no-task delay period, or (3) following performance of a cognitively demanding task. As expected, participants who made risk judgments after the performance of the cognitively demanding task showed higher level of recovery from the negative mood induction (i.e., increased positive mood and decreased negative mood) and lower levels of risk-taking judgment than participants in the delayed condition. Additional analyses showed the risk-taking judgments were explained by mood change after the interpolated task. These findings reconcile previous inconsistencies between the two perspectives. Implications for future research on the restorative role of cognitive task performance as a mood regulation strategy are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Moods, emotion, and affect are similar, but a little bit different each other. By definition, moods are “low-intensity, diffuse and relatively enduring affective states without a salient antecedent cause and therefore little cognitive content (e.g. feeling good or feeling bad),” while emotions “are more intense, short-lived and usually have a definite cause and clear cognitive content” Forgas 1995, p. 41). Affect is used to refer to both moods and emotions (Mayer 1986). This study is focused on moods which are defined in this paper as situational affect assessed by PANAS.

References

  • Ambady, N., & Gray, H. M. (2002). On being sad and mistaken: Mood effects on the accuracy of thin-slice judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(4), 947–961.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Au, K., Chan, F., Wang, D., & Vertinsky, I. (2003). Mood in foreign exchange trading: Cognitive processes and performance. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 91, 322–338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beauregard, M., Lévesque, J., & Bourgouin, P. (2001). Neural correlates of conscious self-regulation of emotion. The Journal of Neuroscience, 21, RC165. (1–6).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blanco, C., Orensanz-Munoz, L., Blanco-Jerez, C., & Saiz-Ruiz, J. (1996). Pathological gambling and platelet MAO activity: A psychobiological study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 119–121.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bless, H., Bohner, G., Schwarz, N., & Strack, F. (1990). Mood and persuasion: A cognitive response analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 16, 331–345.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Breivik, G., Roth, W. T., & Jorgensen, P. E. (1998). Personality, psychological states and heart rate in novice and expert parachutists. Personality and Individual Differences, 25, 365–380.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chou, K.-L., Lee, T. M. C., & Ho, A. H. Y. (2007). Does mood state change risk taking tendency in older adults? Psychology and Aging, 22(2), 310–318.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, M. S., & Isen, A. M. (1982). Towards understanding the relationship between feeling states and social behavior. In A. H. Hastorf & A. M. Isen (Eds.), Cognitive social psychology (pp. 76–108). New York: Elsevier-North Holland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elsbach, K., & Barr, P. (1999). The effects of mood on individual’s use of structured decision protocols. Organization Science, 10, 181–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erber, R., & Erber, M. W. (2000). The self-regulation of moods: Second thoughts on the importance of happiness in everyday life. Psychological Inquiry, 11(3), 142–148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erber, R., & Tesser, A. (1992). Task effort and the regulation of mood: The absorption hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 28, 339–359.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feldman, L. A. (1995). Valence focus and arousal focus: Individual differences in the structure of affective experiences. Journal Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 153–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forgas, J. P. (1995). Mood and judgment: The affect infusion model (AIM). Psychological Bulletin, 117, 39–66.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Forgas, J. P. (1998). Happy and mistaken? Mood effects on the fundamental attribution error. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 318–331.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Forgas, J. P., & Bower, G. H. (1987). Mood effects on person perception judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 53–60.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gerrards-Hesse, A., Spies, K., & Hesse, F. W. (1994). Experimental inductions of emotional states and their effectiveness: A review. British Journal of Psychology, 85, 55–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gohm, C. L. (2003). Mood regulation and emotional intelligence: Individual differences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 594–607.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grandey, A. A. (2000). Emotion regulation in the workplace: A new way to conceptualize emotional labor. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5(1), 95–110.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2, 271–299.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J., & Levenson, R. W. (1995). Emotion elicitation using films. Cognition and Emotion, 9, 87–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J., Richards, J. M., & John, O. P. (2006). Emotion regulation in everyday life. In D. K. Snyder, J. A. Simpson, & J. N. Hughes (Eds.), Emotion regulation in families: Pathways to dysfunction and health (pp. 13–35). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hemenover, S. H. (2003). Individual differences in rate of affect change: Studies in affective chronometry. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 121–131.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hsee, C. K., & Weber, E. U. (1999). Cross-national differences in risk preference and lay predictions. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 12, 165–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isen, A. (1984). Towards understanding the role of affect in cognition. In R. S. Wyer & T. K. Srull (Eds.), Handbook of social cognition (Vol. 3, pp. 179–236). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isen, A. (1987). Positive affect, cognitive processes and social behavior. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 20, pp. 203–253). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Isen, A. M., & Geva, N. (1987). The influence of positive affect on acceptable level of risk: The person with a large canoe has a large worry. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 39, 145–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isen, A. M., Nygren, T. E., & Ashby, F. G. (1988). The influence of positive affect on the subjective utility of gains and losses: It’s just not worth the risk. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 710–717.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Isen, A. M., & Patrick, R. (1983). The effect of positive feelings on risk-taking: When the chips are down. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 31, 194–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk. Econometrica, 47, 263–291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kanfer, R., & Kantrowitz, T. M. (2002). Emotion regulation: Command and control of emotions in work life. In R. Lord, R. Klimoski, & R. Kanfer (Eds.), Emotions in the workplace: Understanding the structure and role of emotions in organizational behavior (pp. 443–472). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kliger, D., & Levy, O. (2003). Mood-induced variation in risk preferences. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 52, 573–584.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuvaas, B., & Kaufmann, G. (2004). Impact of mood, framing, and need for cognition on decision makers’ recall and confidence. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 17, 59–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larsen, R. J. (2000). Toward a science of mood regulation. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 129–141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leith, K. P., & Baumeister, R. F. (1996). Why do bad moods increase self-defeating behavior? Emotion, risk-taking, and self-regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 1250–1267.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Li, S., & Fang, Y. (2004). Respondents in Asian cultures (e.g., Chinese) are more risk-seeking and more overconfident than respondents in other cultures (e.g., in United States) but the reciprocal predictions are in total opposition: How and why? Journal of Cognition and Culture, 4, 263–292.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lischetzke, T., & Eid, M. (2003). Is attention to feelings beneficial or detrimental to affective well-being? Mood regulation as a moderator variable. Emotion, 3, 361–377.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Loewenthal, K. M. (1996). An introduction to psychological tests and scales. London: UCL Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mancini, F., & Gangemi, A. (2004). Fear of guilt of behaving irresponsibly in obsessive–compulsive disorder. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 35, 109–120.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mano, H. (1992). Judgments under distress: Assessing the role of unpleasantness and arousal in judgment formation. Organization Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 52, 216–246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayer, J. D. (1986). How mood influences cognition. In N. E. Sharkey (Ed.), Advances in cognitive science 1 (pp. 290–313). Chicester, UK: Ellis Horwood Limited.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mittal, V., & Ross, W. T. (1998). The impact of positive and negative affect and issue framing on issue interpretation and risk-taking. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 76(3), 298–324.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, N., Soane, E., Fenton-O’Creevy, M., & Willman, P. (2005). Personality and domain-specific risk-taking. Journal of Risk Research, 8, 157–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Park, J., & Banaji, M. R. (2000). Mood and heuristics: The influence of happy and sad states on sensitivity and bias in stereotyping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 1005–1023.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Parkinson, B., & Totterdell, P. (1999). Classifying affect-regulation strategies. Cognition and Emotion, 13, 277–303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richards, J. M., & Gross, J. J. (2000). Emotion regulation and memory: The cognitive costs of keeping one’s cool. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 410–424.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roberti, J. W., Storch, E. A., & Bravata, E. (2003). Further psychometric support for the Sensation Seeking Scale-Form V. Journal of Personality Assessment, 81, 291–292.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rusting, C. L., & DeHart, T. (2000). Retrieving positive memories to regulate negative mood: Consequences for mood-congruent memory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 737–752.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schwarz, N. (1990). Feelings as information: Informational and motivational functions of affective states. In E. T. Higgins & R. Sorrentino (Eds.), Handbook of motivation and cognition: Foundations of social behavior (Vol. 2, pp. 527–561). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, G. T., Fischer, S., Cyders, M. A., Annus, A. M., Spillane, N. S., & McCarthy, D. M. (2007). On the validity of discriminating among impulsivity-like traits. Assessment, 14, 155–170.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Staw, B. M., & Barsade, S. G. (1993). Affect and managerial performance: A test of the sadder-but-wiser vs. happier-and-smarter hypotheses. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38, 304–332.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tamir, M. (2005). Don’t worry, be happy? Neuroticism, trait-consistent affect regulation, and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 449–461.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1981). The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. Science, 211, 453–458.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Twenge, J. M., Catanese, K. R., & Baumeister, R. F. (2003). Social exclusion and the deconstructed state: Time perception, meaninglessness, lethargy, lack of emotion, and self-awareness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 409–423.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D. (1988). The vicissitudes of mood measurement: Effects of varying descriptors, time frames, and response formats on measures of positive and negative affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 128–141.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wegner, D. T., & Petty, R. E. (1994). Mood management across affective states: The hedonic contingency hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 1034–1048.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Westermann, R., Spies, K., Stahl, G., & Hess, F. W. (1996). Relative effectiveness and validity of mood induction procedures: A meta-analysis. European Journal of Social Psychology, 26, 557–580.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yuen, K., & Lee, T. (2003). Could mood affect risk-taking decisions? Journal of Affective Disorders, 75, 11–18.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zuckerman, M. (1983). Sensation seeking and sports. Personality and Individual Differences, 4, 285–293.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zuckerman, M. (1994). Behavioral expressions and biosocial bases of sensation seeking. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zuckerman, M., Kolin, E. A., Price, L., & Zoob, I. (1964). Development of a sensation-seeking scale. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 28, 477–482.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zuckerman, M., & Kuhlman, D. M. (2000). Personality and risk-taking: Common biosocial factors. Journal of Personality, 68, 999–1025.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Min Young Kim & Ruth Kanfer

Authors
  1. Min Young Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ruth Kanfer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Min Young Kim.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kim, M.Y., Kanfer, R. The joint influence of mood and a cognitively demanding task on risk-taking. Motiv Emot 33, 362–372 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-009-9147-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-009-9147-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation