Mood effects on eyewitness memory: Affective influences on susceptibility to misinformation

doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2004.11.005

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Volume 41, Issue 6, November 2005, Pages 574-588

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2004.11.005 Get rights and content

Abstract

Does mood influence the accuracy of eyewitness recollections, and people’s susceptibility to misleading information in particular? Based on recent affect-cognition theories and research on eyewitness memory, three experiments predicted and found that positive affect promoted, and negative affect inhibited the incorporation of misleading information into eyewitness memories. This effect was obtained for both positive and negative events (Experiment 1), and for recorded as well as real-life incidents (Experiment 2). Participants had no meta-cognitive awareness of these mood effects, and affect-control instructions were ineffective in preventing them (Experiment 3). The cognitive mechanisms responsible for mood effects on eyewitness memories are discussed, and the implications of these findings for everyday memories, forensic practice and for current affect/cognition theorizing are considered.

Section snippets

Misleading information and eyewitness accuracy

Social perception and judgments require highly constructive strategies to select, recall and interpret information about people and events (Fiedler et al., 1991, Loftus, 1979, Wells and Loftus, 2003). In a series of highly influential experiments, Elizabeth Loftus showed that people are easily misled and report erroneous memories as a result of being exposed to incorrect post-event information (Loftus, 1979). One common way that eyewitnesses can be exposed to post-event misinformation is by

Affect and eyewitness memories

Although the profound influence of affect on the way people think and behave has long been recognized, mood effects on eyewitness memory have received relatively little attention (cf. Eich and Schooler, 2000, Schooler and Eich, 2000). All things being equal, affective states seem to facilitate the recall and use of affect-congruent rather than incongruent information, and information encountered in a matching rather than a non-matching mood state (Bower and Forgas, 2001, Clore et al., 2001,

Aims and predictions

Thus, the aim of this paper is to explore the influence of transient mood states on eyewitness accuracy, and the incorporation of misleading details into eyewitness memories in particular. Based on previous theories and research, we expected that those in a positive mood should engage in more constructive, assimilative and less externally focused processing, and should be more likely to incorporate misleading information into their eyewitness memories. Negative mood, in contrast, should

Experiment 1

The first experiment was designed as an initial test to see if transient moods can indeed influence the mistaken incorporation of false information into eyewitness reports. We predicted that good mood should increase, and bad mood should reduce people’s susceptibility to misleading information. Further, based on evidence for mood-congruent influences on memory (Eich and Macauley, 2000, Fiedler, 2001, Forgas, 2002), this experiment also investigated the possibility that exposure to misleading

Experiment 2

The second experiment was designed as a further demonstration that transient moods can indeed have a significant impact on the accuracy of eyewitness reports. In contrast with Experiment 1, a realistic and more complex real-life incident rather than photos was used as the target event to be remembered. We also used a different mood induction technique (audio–visual mood induction), to establish the generality and robustness of these effects. As most mood induction techniques also produce

Experiment 3

Experiment 3 sought to replicate the mood effects on eyewitness memory found previously, and also explored whether participants would be able to actively suppress the impact of their moods when instructed to do so. This issue is of some interest, because warning and instructing witnesses is still a fairly common strategy for limiting undesirable influences within judicial and forensic settings. In addition, the role of individual difference variables (such as self-monitoring and social

General discussion and conclusions

Remembering the details of observed events containing complex and often confusing information is one of the more demanding cognitive tasks people face in everyday life. Despite extensive interest in affective influences on cognition in recent years (Bless, 2000, Bower and Forgas, 2001, Eich and Macauley, 2000, Fiedler and Bless, 2001, Forgas, 2002), the influence of affective states on eyewitness accuracy has received less than adequate attention to date. These three experiments offer

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^☆: This project was supported by a Special Investigator Award from the Australian Research Council and by a Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation. The contribution of Stephanie Moylan is gratefully acknowledged.

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Mood effects on eyewitness memory: Affective influences on susceptibility to misinformation☆

Abstract

Section snippets

Misleading information and eyewitness accuracy

Affect and eyewitness memories

Aims and predictions

Experiment 1

Experiment 2

Experiment 3

General discussion and conclusions

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Learning and Individual Differences

Eyewitness testimony: Were we misled?

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition

On the correction of feeling-induced judgmental biases

The interplay of affect and cognition: The mediating role of general knowledge structures

Mood effects on encoding and judgmental processes in persuasion

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Mood and Social Memory

Alternatives to a table of criterion values in signal detection theory

Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers

Eyewitness memory for arousing events

Applied Cognitive Psychology

Suggestibility of the child witness: A historical review and synthesis

Psychological Bulletin

Towards understanding the relationship between feeling states and social behavior

Affect as information

Eyewitness composite production: A function of mental or physical reinstatement of context

Criminal Justice and Behavior

Fundamental factors in mood-dependent memory

Cognition–emotion interactions

Resource allocation model of the effects of depressed mood state on memory

Affective influences on social information processing

Mood and constructive memory effects on social judgment

Cognition and Emotion

The formation of beliefs in the interface of affective and cognitive processes

Sad and guilty? Affective influences on the explanation of conflict episodes

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Mood and judgment: The affect infusion model (AIM)

Psychological Bulletin

On feeling good and getting your way: Mood effects on negotiation strategies and outcomes

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology