Why sad people like shoes better: The influence of mood on the evaluative conditioning of consumer attitudes

Abstract An experimental study investigated the influence of mood on the acquisition of affective consumer attitudes. Within an evaluative conditioning paradigm, participants in happy or sad mood were presented with evaluatively neutral products paired with affectively liked or disliked faces. Subsequent likability ratings revealed that the mere co‐occurrence of a product with the valenced face influenced the evaluation of the previously neutral targets. However, this effect of affective learning was significantly stronger in the sad‐mood condition. A subsequent awareness test indicated that contingency awareness plays a role in the acquisition of consumer attitudes. The implications for consumer research and attitude formation processes are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.