The impact of mood on persuasion

A meta-analysis of 14 studies reporting the effect of argument strength on atti-tude under various mood states was conducted. The analyses included 39 esti-mates of effect size that were used to test the predictions of the processing defi-cit perspectives (i.e., motivational or ability deficits) and the hedonic contingency model. The results were most consistent with the hedonic contin-gency model, indicating that participants ’ processing of messages seemed to be motivated toward attaining or maintaining positive moods