Negative incidental affect and mood congruency in crossed categorization

Jared B. Kenworthy, Carrie J. Canales, Kimberlee D. Weaver, Norman Miller

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

Examined the effects of incidental sadness and anger on affiliative responses to crossed categorization targets. Affect manipulations included an anger-provoking frustration (Study 1), a sad film clip (Study 2), and autobiographical essays about sad or anger-provoking topics (Studies 3 and 4). By comparison with a neutral mood, anger (Study 1) reduced affiliative tendencies toward persons possessing an out-group membership but not toward those possessing only in-group memberships. Study 2 showed a similar pattern for sadness. Studies 3 and 4 replicated these effects in designs including both types of negative mood. Meta-analytic integration showed the pattern of greater rejection of targets with an out-group membership to be stronger under anger than sadness. Study 4 also showed that despite yielding a consistent pattern for affiliation, sadness and anger differentially elicited aggressive tendencies toward the same targets.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)195-219
Number of pages25
JournalJournal of Experimental Social Psychology
Volume39
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2003
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was partially facilitated by National Science Foundation Grant SBR 931 9752. We thank Dr. Jerald M. Jellison for allowing us to conduct Study 3 with students from his course. We also thank Dr. Darren I. Urada for creating the randomization program used in these studies; copies of the program may be requested via electronic mail: [email protected].

Keywords

  • Affiliation
  • Anger
  • Crossed categorization
  • Intergroup aggression
  • Mood congruency
  • Negative affect
  • Sadness

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Sociology and Political Science

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Negative incidental affect and mood congruency in crossed categorization'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this