When Quality Influences Quantity: The Effect of Mood

1
When Quality Influences Quantity The Effect of
Mood Information Quality on Upward Comparison
Seeking. Lavonia Smith LeBeau Karen Gasper,
Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State
University
INTRODUCTION
EXPERIMENT ONE RESULTS
EXPERIMENT TWO RESULTS
High Threat Situation
Previous literature has shown conflicting results
concerning how happy and sad moods influence
upward comparison seeking behavior, in that each
mood state sometimes promotes and sometimes
inhibits comparison seeking. The purpose of our
two experiments is to provide a more parsimonious
explanation for when, how, and why mood states
influences upward comparison seeking by
considering the context in which these
comparisons are made. Specifically, we look at
high versus low threat situations and information
quality (whether making upward comparisons is
seen as helpful or not helpful for improvement).
High Threat Situation
As predicted, the results replicated Experiment 1
with respondents in the sad mood/low quality
information condition making less comparisons
than participants in all other conditions. F
(1, 71) 5.01, p .03
Consistent with the hypothesis, individuals in
sad moods who believed the comparisons to be low
quality information made less comparisons than
all others. F (1,103) 5.34, p .02


Sad 24.82
Happy 24.94
Happy 23.38
Sad 19.57
Happy 15.62
Sad 16.00

• Hypotheses
• Mood states provide us with different information
  based on the context of the situation.
• High-threat situations
• Sad moods lead to doubts about whether one can
  improve, decreasing comparison seeking, unless
  assured information is high quality.
• Happy moods lead to feeling assured that one can
  improve, promoting comparison seeking, regardless
  of information quality.
• Low-threat situations
• Happy moods lead to satisfaction with ones
  performance, decreasing upward comparison
  seeking, unless assured information is high
  quality.
• Sad moods lead to doubts which foster the need to
  improve, increasing upward comparison seeking,
  regardless of information quality.

Sad 15.38
Happy 14.9
Happy 15.38
Sad 13.00
Low-Threat Condition

• The purpose of Experiment 2 was to replicate the
  high-threat findings from Experiment 1 and test
  our predictions concerning low-threat situations.
  Experiment 2 had the same basic procedure as
  Experiment except for a few minor changes.
• Addition of a low-threat condition in which
  participants received feedback that they scored
  in the 85th percentile on the creativity task.
• Increased number of comparisons that participants
  could make from 17 to 34 since participants in
  Experiment made 15.34/17 comparisons which
  produced a potential ceiling effect.
• Eliminated control information quality condition
  due to the fact that there were no differences
  found between the high quality information
  condition and the control condition.

As predicted, individuals in the happy mood/low
quality information condition made less
comparisons than participants in all other
conditions. F (1, 81) 4.61, p .04

Sad 22.34
Happy 25.55
Sad 22.75
Happy 18.22
EXPERIMENT ONE

• Design 2 mood (happy/sad) X 3 information
  quality (high/control/low) with all participants
  receiving threatening feedback that they scored
  in the 25th percentile on a creativity task.
• Hypothesis Individuals in sad moods presented
  with low quality information (not helpful for
  improvement) will make less upward comparisons
  than those in all other conditions.
• Participants 27 male, 84 female university
  students (Ages 18 24, M 18.43)
• Independent Variables
• Mood manipulated with video
• Information quality manipulated by telling
  participants that some previous participants
  found looking at comparisons to be helpful (high
  quality)/not helpful (low quality) for improving
  on a second task. Control condition told nothing
  about previous participants.
• Dependent Variable
• Participants were told that they look at
  responses on the fly-listing task of previous
  participants who scored in the 95th percentile.
  Participants were allowed to look at up to 17
  responses.

EXPERIMENT TWO
DISCUSSION

• Design 2 mood (happy/sad) X 2 information
  quality (high/low) X 2 threat (high/low)
• Participants 61 male, 99 female university
  students (Ages 18 32, M 19)
• Independent Variables
• Mood
• Information quality low/high
• Threat was manipulated by randomly assigning
  participants to receive feedback that they either
  scored in the 25th (replicating Experiment 1) or
  85th (new low-threat condition) percentile on the
  creativity task.
• Dependent Variable
• Number of upward comparisons, measured the same
  way as in Experiment 1 except participants could
  look at up to 34 responses.

• Both happy and sad moods can increase and
  decrease upward comparison seeking, depending on
  the level of threat!
• High-threat situation
• Happy moods led to upward comparisons regardless
  of information quality
• Sad moods led to upward comparisons unless
  comparisons were of low quality.
• Low-threat situation
• Sad moods led to upward comparisons regardless of
  information quality.
• Happy moods led to upward comparisons unless
  comparisons were of low quality.
• This work highlights the importance of
  considering the context (i.e., threat) in which
  comparisons are made in order to understand how,
  when, and why mood states influence whether
  people seek out upward comparison information.