The role of affective (mood) states in perceptions of quality, sacrifice and value

Three studies investigated the way that mood affects judgments of commercial products. Participants who felt either happy or sad as a result of watching a movie or writing about a personal event, evaluated products based on different combinations of brand name (favorable vs. unfavorable), specific attribute descriptions (favorable vs. unfavorable) and price (high vs. low). An application of a weighted-average model of information integration proposed by Anderson (1981) permitted an assessment of the impact of mood on (a) the subjective weight, or importance, attached to each piece of information presented, (b) the scale value of this information (i.e., the interpretation of its implications), and (c) an initial impression of the product formed before its specific features were considered. Three sets of findings are noteworthy: (1) The weight attached to brand name in making judgments increased with the positive affect that participants experienced, whereas the weight attached to price appeared to decrease. This was particularly true of value and liking judgments. In addition, desirable brands were interpreted as more favorable, and undesirable brands as more unfavorable, when subjects were in positive moods than when they were not. (2) Mood-congruent information was weighted more heavily than mood-incongruent information. When attribute-descriptions of a product were presented along with brand name, they had less influence when the brand name accompanying it was mood-congruent. When price information was conveyed, however, greater attention to the mood-congruent brand name decreased the influence of price's implications for quality but not its implications for sacrifice. As a result, high price led to more negative value judgments and purchasing intentions when the brand information accompanying it was mood-congruent than when it was not. (3) Participants' initial impressions of both the quality of a product and the sacrifice required to purchase it were greater when they were in a positive mood than when they were not. However, because their first impressions of product's value reflected a trade-off between their perceptions of its quality and perceptions of the sacrifice required, these impressions were not affected by mood.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Business Administration

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Adaval, Rashmi

Contributors dc:contributor

• Monroe, Kent B.

• Business Administration, Marketing
• Economics, General
• Psychology, Personality

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 1996 Adaval, Rashmi

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

9780591197242
AAI9712183
(UMI)AAI9712183

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/22158