The Effect of Incidental Emotions on Judgments and Behavior in Unrelated Situations: A Review

The emotions that people experience in one situation can influence their judgments and behavioral decisions in other situations that are objectively unrelated to the conditions that gave rise to them. These effects are evident in a variety of emotions, including embarrassment, guilt and shame, jealousy and envy, anger and fear, sadness, disgust, hopelessness, hope, pride, romantic crushes, and nostalgia. In this article, we review the results of research that exemplify the impact of specific emotions on consumer behavior. Specifically, negative emotions motivate individuals to eliminate the unpleasant feelings they elicit and activate concepts concerning the means of attaining this general goal. Once activated, these concepts influence behavior in unrelated situations independently of the conditions that gave rise to the feelings. Positive emotions do not induce such compensatory motivation. Nevertheless, they can sometimes trigger desires, and the behavioral disposition activated by these desires can also influence behavior in unrelated situations.