A Conceptualization of Mood Influences on Group Judgment and Decision Making: The Key Function of Dominant Cognitive Processing Strategies

Abstract

This conceptualization describes how positive and negative mood states, information processing, cognitive processing strategies, and group interaction combine to influence group judgment and decision making. The crux of the conceptualization is a dominant cognitive processing strategy. Positive moods inform group members that the situation is benign and reinforce dominant cognitive processing strategies. Negative moods provide feedback that the situation is problematic, leading to inhibition or revision of dominant cognitive processing strategies. Moods achieve these impacts through their influences on the cognitive processes of attention, processing objectives, and cognitive representations. Group interaction also accentuates these cognitive processes and related strategies. This conceptualization is applied to understand mood influences on jury decision making, group social dilemmas, hidden profile tasks, group judgments of opinions, judgments with cognitive biases, and quantitative judgments. The discussion considers mood influences in other group judgment and decision making related phenomena of group brainstorming, intergroup negotiation, stress, and groupthink.