Affect, Framing, and Persuasion

The authors conduct two experiments that indicate that the effectiveness of loss- versus gain-framed messages depends on the affective state of the message recipient. In Experiment 1, the authors find that participants induced with a positive mood are more persuaded by the lossframed message, whereas participants induced with a negative mood are more persuaded by the gain-framed message. In addition, the authors observe that participants in a positive mood have higher risk estimates and lower costs in response to the loss frame than the gain frame, whereas the reverse is true for participants in a negative mood. The authors replicate these effects in Experiment 2 in which they measure rather than induce the participants' affective state.