تایید خلق و خوی و تصحیح برای تعصب خلق همخوان در قضاوت اجتماعی

Past research has revealed a mood-congruency bias wherein people evaluate other individuals more positively when they are experiencing good moods than when they are experiencing bad moods. At times, however, people may attempt to prevent their transient mood states from biasing their evaluations of other people. It was proposed that the capacity to attend openly to one’s moods is an important precursor to such mood correction efforts. Two studies supported this hypothesis. People who were encouraged to attend to their feelings (Study 1), as well as people who are naturally inclined to acknowledge their feelings (Study 2), were more likely than their counterparts to prevent their positive and negative moods from biasing their judgments of a target person.

Imagine this scenario: Shortly after receiving the news that her pet had died, a professor interviewed a job candidate and made a recommendation regarding his suitability for the job. Considerable research on the mood-congruency effect (e.g., Forgas, 2000 and Forgas, 2001; Schwarz & Clore, 1996) suggests that the sadness prompted by this loss might lead the professor to evaluate the applicant’s potential less favorably than she would otherwise. Mood-congruency effects may not be inevitable, however. The professor’s acknowledgment of her negative mood might lead her to counteract the potentially biasing effect of her feelings. Our research examined the role that an individual’s ability to openly acknowledge his or her moods may play in the mood correction process. Specifically, are people less likely to reveal the mood-congruency bias when they are encouraged to focus on their feelings? Do individual differences in such abilities predict the degree of mood-congruent bias that occurs? Before addressing these questions, we outline previous research on how moods affect social judgments as well as pertinent recent models of correction processes.