On being happy and possessive: The interactive effects of mood and personality on consumer judgments

✍ Scribed by Joseph P. Forgas; Joseph Ciarrochi

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 205 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0742-6046
• DOI: 10.1002/1520-6793(200103)18:3<239::aid-mar1007>3.0.co;2-b

✦ Synopsis

Evaluations of consumer items may often be based on affective reactions, and many marketing strategies rely on affective manipulations to influence a desire of ownership. Surprisingly, there has been relatively little empirical work investigating the influence of short-term mood states on how people evaluate their material possessions. In particular, the role of individual differences in mediating these effects received little attention. In these two experiments, participants who scored high or low on the Openness to Feelings scale were induced to feel good or bad and were then asked to estimate the subjective and objective value of a variety of consumer items they already owned or wanted to own. Results showed a mood-congruent pattern. People who were feeling good valued both actual and potential possessions more highly than did people in a negative mood. However, individual differences significantly influenced these effects. People who scored high on the Openness to Feelings scale were most influenced by their moods. In contrast, people who scored low on this measure showed the reverse pattern. The findings are discussed in terms of the psychological