The Differential Effects Of Related And Unrelated Emotions On Judgments About Media Messages

The present study investigated the influence of related and unrelated emotions on judgments about a news article. An experimental study was designed to manipulate both the relatedness of an elicited emotion (i. e., anger) to the news article and processing depth. Following mood and emotion effects theory, related anger was expected to have a stronger effect on judgments about the media message than unrelated anger. Processing depth was expected to moderate this effect. The results showed a main effect of relatedness and a main effect of processing depth, but the interaction effect was not found. Implications of the findings for understanding how emotions influence the processing of media stimuli are discussed.