Affective Facilitation and Inhibition of Cultural Influences on Reasoning

Publication Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

1-2012

Abstract

Research in South Korea and the United States examined how affective states facilitate or inhibit culturally dominant styles of reasoning. According to the affect-as-information hypothesis, affective cues of mood influence judgements by serving as embodied information about the value of accessible inclinations and cognitions. Extending this line of research to culture, we hypothesised that positive affect should promote (and negative affect should inhibit) culturally normative reasoning. The results of two studies of causal reasoning supported this hypothesis. Positive and negative affect functioned like “go” and “stop” signals, respectively, for culturally typical reasoning styles. Thus, in happy (compared to sad) moods, Koreans engaged in more holistic reasoning, whereas Americans engaged in more analytic reasoning.

Keywords

Affect, Mood, Cognition, Culture, Analytic-holistic reasoning, Affect-as-information

Discipline

Asian Studies | Business | Psychology

Research Areas

Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources

Publication

Cognition and Emotion

Volume

26

Issue

4

First Page

680

Last Page

689

ISSN

0269-9931

Identifier

10.1080/02699931.2011.613920

Publisher

Taylor and Francis

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