The influence of mood on descriptions: attributes, properties, and brand names

Transcription

1 The influence of mood on descriptions: attributes, properties, and brand names Nidia Melendez Vargas ANR Master s Thesis Communication and Information Science Specialization Business Communication and Digital Media Thesis committee: Prof. Dr. Emiel Krahmer Dr. Martijn Goudbeek Tilburg University Faculty of Humanities Department of Communication and Information Science Tilburg, the Netherlands May, 2014

2 Acknowledgements Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. Steve Jobs ( ) Two years ago the desire to continue with my academic career started, I always wanted to do a Master s degree abroad, and now that this journey is almost over I cannot find the exact words to express my feelings. Without a doubt this has been the best experience of my life so far. I chose this subject because it was fascinating to work with something totally new to me. Although I enjoyed doing the experiments and eliciting emotions, the entire process was demanding. Nevertheless, it was a learning experience. I would like to express my gratitude to my primary supervisor Martijn Goudbeek, who guided me on the right track and provided me with enormous and valuable feedback. I would also like to thank my secondary supervisor Emiel Krahmer, since the beginning he was very clear about the direction of the project, and opened my interest to develop new ideas into the thesis. In addition, I thank the persons who helped me with the translations in Dutch. It is a hard language and as a foreigner, working with another language out of your domain is challenging and frustrating. So thank you very much for the help. Apart from my own efforts, I would not be here without the efforts of my parents. Thank you for your unconditional support, thrust, and motivation. You are my rock! Gracias por estar siempre ahí. Sincerely, Nidia Melendez Vargas ii

3 Abstract Based on recent language and emotion theories, the present study was conducted to investigate the main differences between positive and negative mood regarding the descriptions of objects. In order to elicit both moods, a pilot study examined the effectiveness of elicited emotions by means of modern film clips. An identification of objects study was conducted to investigate the role of happiness and disgust emotion in the formation of attributes during the description of objects, for this reason a usefulness-factor was used, in this factor two conditions were used. Condition one was called brand useful, and condition two was called brand useless. The study found that disgusted people produced concrete descriptions of objects based on the use of brands names as attributes, and happy people produced longer descriptions with more attributes for describing objects. The present study demonstrates the implications of these findings for future studies, especially on the use of brand names as an attribute. Keywords: emotion, mood induction, description, attribute, brand name. iii

4 Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS... II ABSTRACT... III CONTENTS... IV LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES... V CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION... 6 CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK THEORY OF EMOTIONS EMOTION AND LANGUAGE PRODUCTION BRAND NAMES RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES...11 CHAPTER 3 PILOT: FILM CLIPS PARTICIPANTS MATERIALS PROCEDURE MEASURES RESULTS CONCLUSIONS...16 CHAPTER 4 DESCRIPTION AND IDENTIFICATION OF OBJECTS PARTICIPANTS MATERIALS PROCEDURES MEASURES RESULTS Validation of mood induction Validation of language production task...22 The use of brand names The use of size The use of color The use of shape The sum of the attributes The use of length CONCLUSIONS...29 CHAPTER 5 GENERAL DISCUSSION REFERENCES APPENDIX iv

5 List of figures and tables FIGURES FIGURE 1. CONDITION OF BRAND USEFUL FIGURE 2. CONDITION OF BRAND USELESS FIGURE 3. SCALE EMOTIONS FOR DISGUSTED PARTICIPANTS DURING AND AFTER THE TASK FIGURE 4. SCALE EMOTIONS FOR HAPPY PARTICIPANTS DURING AND AFTER THE TASK FIGURE 5. MOOD EFFECTS ON BRAND PROPERTY FIGURE 6. MOOD EFFECTS ON SIZE PROPERTY FIGURE 7. MOOD EFFECTS ON COLOR PROPERTY FIGURE 8. MOOD EFFECTS OF SHAPE PROPERTY FIGURE 9. MOOD EFFECTS SUM OF PROPERTIES FIGURE 10. MOOD EFFECTS LENGTH OF DESCRIPTIONS TABLES TABLE 1. MEAN SCORES PILOT: HAPPY FILM CLIPS TABLE 2. MEAN SCORES PILOT: DISGUST FILM CLIPS TABLE 3. MEAN SCORES HAPPY MOOD AND DISGUST MOOD TABLE 4. MEAN SCORES NEUTRAL MOOD TABLE 5. EMOTIONS EFFECTS ON THE USE OF BRAND NAMES IN DESCRIPTIONS TABLE 6. EMOTION EFFECTS ON THE USE OF SIZE IN DESCRIPTIONS TABLE 7. EMOTION EFFECTS ON THE USE OF COLOR IN DESCRIPTIONS TABLE 8. EMOTION EFFECTS ON THE USE OF SHAPE IN DESCRIPTIONS TABLE 9. EMOTION EFFECTS ON THE SUM OF PROPERTIES TABLE 10. EMOTION EFFECTS ON THE LENGTH OF THE DESCRIPTIONS v

6 Chapter 1 Introduction Two sisters are on a long flight coming back home from vacation, both of them are tired. One of the sisters is watching a comedy movie, while the other sister is trying to sleep; there is also another man next to one of the sisters and he is eating some crisps. The sister who is watching the film is laughing and having a good time, but the other sister is listening to how the man is eating, she is annoyed. After a break both of the sisters start talking about the purchases they made during the vacation, the sister who was watching the movie is making long descriptions, but the other sister is talking more concrete. Suddenly the man interrupts their conversation, saying to the sister next to him: you do not like to shop, right? The story above illustrates the idea that emotion has an influence on the way people speak and communicate. Even though the man did not know about the emotions of the sisters, he noticed the difference of the language they were using, inferring that the sister who was being more concrete did not like to shop. Is it possible that persons in a negative mood give a bad impression just by being more concrete in their language? This question was our main interest for developing this research. Happiness is a positive emotion and is one of the most used affective states in emotion research, but less is known about disgust, as most of the studies use sadness as the negative emotion. This study aims to contribute with some important findings about the effect of this negative emotion on language production. This hopefully will open the interest for future studies in language production. Furthermore, this study on spoken language aims to contribute to the area of marketing. This is because it is crucial for marketers to build emotional associations related to brand names in order for potential consumers to recognize and identify a product. These emotional associations should happen not just at the level of their everyday life experience, but also when they are experiencing an emotional state. It is expected that companies are interested in understanding the implications that emotions have on spoken language in order 6

7 to create advertisements that are better remembered, in addition to sell their products and increase sales. During the past decades studies on emotion have used a variety of different procedures (Barret, Lindquist & Gendron, 2007; Rottenberg, Ray & Gross, 2007; Kempe, Rookes & Swarbrigg, 2012), but until today little is known about the influence of emotional state on the language produced by speakers. The aim of this research is to elicit referential expressions under specific emotional circumstances in order to understand the influence of emotional state on language production, in particular on the description of objects with reference to brand names. This study had two phases; in the first phase a pilot study was conducted to validate modern film clips in order to elicit happiness and disgust emotions, the validated film clips were used in the second phase of the study. The second phase was the main study and consisted on the identification and description of one out of three objects while the speaker was in an emotional state. The present study investigated the question, what are the characteristics in the type of descriptions that people use when they are in a positive mood or negative mood? This research investigated three emotions: happiness, disgust, and neutral. The focus of the study was on the difference between happiness and disgust. Both emotions are part in the high aroused dimensional circumplex theory of emotions (Russell & Barrett, 1999). The dimensional theory of emotions includes a core affect factor indicating that the feeling created in a consciousness state is related to pleasant and unpleasant emotion in addition to their place on the degree of aroused-passive dimension. Therefore, these two emotions represent the feelings of the everyday lives of potential consumers when they are facing different events: such as being happy, excited, stressed or tense. In the forthcoming sections of this introduction, the role that emotions have on language is discussed, together with the role of brand names on describing objects. The implications of the results obtained in this study are discussed at the end of the paper. 7

8 Chapter 2 Theoretical Framework 2.1 Theory of emotions Emotions, according to the appraisal framework, are defined as action tendencies, and motivating forces of our actions (Frijda, 1987). Additionally, an emotion can be considered as a stimulus that involves both physiological and psychological processes to express one s feelings. Also, emotions contribute to information about a particular situation or intense event, because persons communicate this experience to others with verbal and nonverbal language. The main focus of this research is on the type of descriptions produced while a person is in an emotional state. This research is based on Russell s theory of emotions (1977) that assumes three dimensions are necessary to adequately define emotional states: pleasure-displeasure, arousal-nonarousal, and dominance-submissiveness (Russell, 1977). In addition to the three dimensions of emotion, Johnson and Myers (1967) used a basic category of five elements: happiness, arousal, anger, fear, and depression, on which it is assumed that every emotion can be classified as a basic category. Therefore, this study is based on the basic emotion approach by Ekman (1992). Scales of activation and deactivation are used as well, making the classification of emotion even more complex. This makes the classification of emotion important, because several emotions have the same connotation (Russell & Barret, 1999). For example a person may be depressed and at the moment of talking to others mention that they are sad, or a person may be excited and refer themselves as being happy. Therefore, it is easy to misunderstand the exact emotion a person is experiencing. 2.2 Emotion and language production The main characteristic of language is that is used to interact, express feelings and emotions, and help to establish and maintain relationships between persons. Language is the primary medium of interpersonal communication and social influence strategies, and the ability to use language effectively is a common and challenging task in everyday social life (Forgas, 2007, p.513). Language is 8

9 the most important medium in the relations of human beings and social interaction. The way we communicate depends on the social influences that we are exposed to from the moment we are born and is influenced by our mood. Furthermore, mood states influence the way persons produce and respond to verbal requests (Forgas, 1999; 2002). Mood states imply differences in the way we think and act, and influence our thoughts, memories, judgments, decisionmaking and behaviors. Several experiments found that persons in a negative mood tend to have a concrete style of thinking, and pay greater attention to information (Sinclair, 1988; Forgas, 2002). As mentioned above, the communication of people depends to a large extent on how they use words to express their feelings. Language plays a constitutive role in emotion perception because words ground the otherwise highly variable instances of an emotion category (Lindquist & Gendron, 2013, p. 67), so words are explicit in most of the emotions expressed by human beings. According to several theories, when people experience positive emotions their thoughts and actions are unclear, because they make associations based on social judgment using stereotypes (Beukeboom & Semin, 2005; 2006). The opposite takes place when they experience negative emotions; their actions are clear because people in a negative mood are more analytic (Beukeboom & Semin, 2006). There have been several studies about how mood affects several aspects in our life especially in the use of language and words connected to a particular emotional state. These studies investigated the abstractness in verbal narrative events, and the relevance of mood incongruent words in discourses (Chung et al., 1996; Beukeboom & Semin, 2005; Kiefer et al., 2006; Egidi & Gerrig, 2009; Egidi & Nusbaum, 2012). All of these studies address the influence that certain emotions have on the interaction, association, and use of language in descriptive discourses. In addition, the study explored whether a positive mood operationalized as happiness or negative mood affects the recognition and description of objects by means of well-known products. The studies mentioned above mainly used sadness as the negative emotion, but little is known about the effects of disgust 9

10 emotion on descriptive language. Therefore, this research used disgust as the negative emotion. Previous studies showed that emotional states affect speech production (Forgas, 1999; Beukeboom & Semin, 2005; Egidi & Nusbaum, 2012; Kempe, Rookes, & Swarbrigg, 2012). Speakers who experience a negative emotion produced more elaborate, longer, and more polite discourses with an increased attention to detail and informative descriptions by means of greater attention. In contrast, the perception of speakers in a positive emotion has a reliance on egocentric biases and increases the ambiguity of the discourses. In discourse comprehension, the results showed that negative emotions result in a greater integration of words (Van Berkum, De Goede, Van Alphen, Mulder & Kerstholt, 2013). Additionally to the integration of words, people in a negative emotion are more informative, detect faster, and remember better the assignment they need to perform (Egidi & Nusbaum, 2012). Research on persuasive communication also suggests that negative emotion may lead to concrete discourses because they contain specific information and concrete details that produce effective persuasive messages (Forgas, 2007). In contrast, discourses with a positive emotion may lead to abstractness, general knowledge, and produce less effective persuasive messages (Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1953; Eagly & Chaiken, 1993). 2.3 Brand names There have been studies about the perception of brand names and how they affect our brain (Gontijo, 1998; Gontijo, Rayman, Zhang & Zaidel, 2002). These studies showed that brand names are processed faster than nonwords and common nouns, and that brand names are part of the lexical system of both hemispheres in the brain just like proper names. However, most theorists assume that there is not enough neuropsychological evidence about the recognition of brand names in the brain (Gontijo et al., 2002). The present study focused on how persons create descriptions of products and on the extent in which they name the brand of the product. Brand names represent emotional and graphical meanings, because they are pervasive with the continuous exposure of products, and because of the big 10

11 persuasive advertising campaigns. The goal of marketers is to place brand names in the memory of people. Memory is one of the most fundamental and also complex cognitive capacities with which we are endowed (Gontijo & Zhang, 2007, p.32). In the end, brands represent familiarity and loyalty similar to the printed words that are placed in the memory of the brain. The recognition and recall of brand names is an index of how successful a product is in the marketplace. Gontijo, Rayman, Zhang and Zaidel (2002) suggested that advertising is remembered better under positive affect than under negative or neutral mood. Another argument is that people in a positive mood are efficient in creating associations and processing information, the result is a long term memory of the advertised product (LaTour & LaTour, 2009). This research addressed to investigate the perception of brand names and how people use them in language production. 2.4 Research questions and hypotheses The aim of this research is to identify what type of descriptions people tend to use when they are in an emotional state, especially if the person is happy or disgusted. This type of descriptions will acknowledge understanding the main properties that most of people use under these two emotions. The description of the objects creates a mental picture in the mind of the listener that enables the recognition of the object mentioned. Moreover, the properties and type of attributes used in descriptions represent content that is placed in the brain and determine how successful the description was in terms of identify the object (Krahmer & Van Deemter, 2012). Overall, the contrast of the two emotional descriptions provide us with an understanding of the use of words, nouns, and adjectives that people use when they are in an emotional state such as happy or disgusted. One particular interest is the difference between description with similar objects and different objects, such as describing objects with the same brand and different brand. This study addressed specific research questions to study the effect of the emotions experienced by people and the language they used to identify objects. The research questions are: Does emotional state influence the use of brand names in descriptions? Does the use of objects with different brands produce 11

12 detailed and concrete descriptions in comparison with objects with same brands? What are the differences between the descriptions of happy and disgusted people? Two hypotheses were formulated as a result of the research questions. The first hypothesis is supported by the research of Forgas (2007) which stated that people in negative mood pay more attention to details, are more concrete, and analytical. In contrast with negative mood, positive people generate more abstract and less concrete discourses. The second hypothesis is based on the research by Gontijo, Rayman, Zhang and Zaidel (2002), and Beukeboom and Semin (2006). It is assumed that positive people tend to name the brand of the product in their descriptions. This is because brands are part of the social life, which leads to brands becoming highly familiar (Gontijo et al., 2002). Additionally, it is stated that people in a positive mood rely on past experiences, make emphasis on social judgments, and pay attention to stereotypes (Beukeboom & Semin, 2006). The two hypotheses read as follows: 1. When describing objects, disgusted people use more words and attributes than happy people. 2. When describing objects, happy people use more brand names than disgusted people. In order to examine both hypotheses, a study was conducted to investigate the identification and description of objects to understand the type of language people used and the judgments they made. Additionally, this study investigated the effectiveness of positive and negative emotion regarding the use of brand names in the description of objects. 12

13 Chapter 3 Pilot: film clips There is a wide variety of emotion induction methods such as listening to music, reading a verse, looking at images, and watching film clips. These procedures have already been tested with sensitive and careful experiments (Philippot, 1993; Gross & Levenson, 1995; Rottenberg, Ray, & Gross, 2007; Schaefer, Nils, Sanchez, & Philippot, 2010; Kempe, Rookes, & Swarbrigg, 2012). Of these procedures, film clips have the most advantages. Film clips are one of the most effective ways to elicit emotions (Gerrards-Hesse, Spies, & Hesse, 1994), because they allow eliciting psychological changes, and provide an excellent artificial model of reality (Schaefer et al., 2010). It is important to note that there is evidence suggesting that people differ in the propensity to experience disgust reactions towards specific objects or under certain situations. Therefore, the extent of the disgust experienced will vary in each participant, for one person the disgust emotion can be more intense than for another (Olatunji & Sawchuk, 2005). This factor also depends on gender, because in some cases men are more tolerant to disgust experiences than women. Most of the established data sets of film clips contain validated film clips that are at least ten years old. This was a motivation to investigate and validate modern film clips. To validate these modern film clips, a pre-test with four recent film clips (two per emotion), which are at most one year old, was conducted. The pre-test facilitated the selection of the best alternative to elicit happiness and disgust for the present study. 3.1 Participants Sixty four participants (32 females, 32 males, mean age 25 years old) from an online pool took part in the mood induction pre-test. Each film clip was judged by sixteen participants (8 females, and 8 males). 13

14 3.2 Materials The first phase of this research was to check the effectiviness of four modern film clips in eliciting the target emotions. To investigate happiness two film clips were selected: the music video Happy by Pharrel Williams of the Despicable Me OST and the video of Slow motion booth at wedding reception with Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke. Two film clips were selected to investigate Disgust: Pimple from OMG viral video and Mouse shake from Food for Louis. 3.3 Procedure The participants were instructed to watch an emotional film clip. After the film clip, they had to fill in a self-report questionnaire to measure their emotional responses in order to quantify their subjective state. It was stated that the purpose of the study was to learn more about emotions. Participants were instructed with the following instructions taken from Philippot (1993): We are interested in how the scenes themselves make you feel. Therefore, your ratings should reflect the emotional impact of the segment on you, rather than your feelings due to other factors, such as the weather or personal problems. We are interested in how these film segments make you feel rather than in how you think you should feel or how you think others would feel. (McHugo, et al., 1982). 3.4 Measures The Differential Emotions Scale (DES; Izard et al., 1974) was used, which is one of the most widely used self-report scales of discrete emotional feelings (Youngstrom & Green, 2003). It is used to assess discrete emotional states, in order to check whether selected film stimuli can trigger differentiated emotional feeling states with a basic emotion approach (Ekman, 1992). Eighteen affective states from the version of Schaefer et al. (2010) were used, allowing participants to rate their emotions after they watched the film clip: (1) amusement; (2) anger; (3) anxiety (4) confusion; (5) contempt; (6) disgust; (7) embarrassment; (8) fear; (9) guilt; (10) happiness; (11) interest; (12) love; (13) joy; (14) pride; (15) sadness; (16) shame; (17) surprise; (18) unhappiness. For each affective state mentioned above, participants used a seven-point scale (rating from 1= not at all, to 7= extremely ) to rate the extent to which they felt as they were watching the film clip. To assess the film clips following a 14

15 dimensional approach of emotions (Sonnemans & Frijda, 1995), the intensity of subjective emotional arousal using a seven-point scale was also measured: While I was watching the film (rating from 1= I felt no emotions at all to, 7= I felt very intense emotions ). The intensity pleasantness was assessed using a seven-point scale: Please use the following pleasantness scale to rate the feelings you had during the videoclip (rating from 1= unpleasant to, 7= pleasant ). 3.5 Results For the condition of happiness: Happy by Pharrel Williams of the Despicable Me OST (happy filmclip1) was compared with Slow motion booth at wedding reception with Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke (happy filmclip2) (see Table 1). The variable happiness was rated (M= 4.69, SD= 1.40) for happy filmclip1, which is lower than the scores for happy filmclip2 (M= 5.06, SD= 1.18). For the condition of disgust: Pimple from OMG viral video (disgust filmclip1) was compared with Mouse shake from Food for Louis (disgust filmclip2) (see Table 2). The variable disgust was rated (M= 6.19, SD= 1.37) for disgust filmclip1, which is lower than the scores for filmclip2 (M= 6.63, SD=.61). The variable intensity was measured for the happy film clips, and the disgust film clips. For happy filmclip1 was rated (M= 3.88, SD= 1.62), which is lower than the scores for happy filmclip2 (M= 5.06, SD= 1.18). For disgust filmclip1 was rated (M= 4.50, SD= 1.67), which is lower than the scores for disgust filmclip2 (M= 4.75, SD= 1.61). Table 1. Mean scores pilot: happy film clips Happy filmclip1 Mean (SD) Happy filmclip2 Mean (SD) Happy 4.69 (1.40) 5.25 (1.29) Intensity 3.88 (1.62) 5.06 (1.18) Film clips: Happy by Pharrell Williams of the Despicable Me OST, and Video Slow motion booth at wedding reception with Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke. 15

16 Table 2. Mean scores pilot: disgust film clips Disgust filmclip1 Disgust filmclip2 Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Disgust 6.19 (1.37) 6.63 (.61) Intensity 4.50 (1.67) 4.75 (1.61) Film clips: Pimple from OMG viral video, and Mouse shake from Food for Louis. 3.6 Conclusions Based on the results of the pre-test the best alternative for elicited happiness is happy filmclip1, and for elicited disgust the best option is disgust filmclip2. Consequently, this research used the film clip of Slow motion booth at wedding reception with Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke to elicit happiness, and the film clip Mouse shake from Food for Louis to elicit disgust. 16

17 Chapter 4 Description and identification of objects In the present study participants observed images with three objects and were asked to identify and describe a target object. These descriptions provided the material to answer the research questions and understand the influence that emotion has on the choice of words, and the style of language participants used to describe objects. Two conditions were used. In condition one, mentioning the brand was useful, due to the fact that we presented some distractors in the scene, henceforth we refer to this condition as brand useful. In this condition the stimulus displayed to the participants was an image with three objects sharing similar characteristics but the brand of each object was different. In condition two, mentioning the brand was not useful, due to the fact that we did not present distractors in the scene, henceforth we refer to this condition as brand useless. In this condition the stimulus displayed was an image with three similar objects and the same brand. We predict that if participants were in a happy mood they would be more likely to use brand names in their descriptions. Participants in a disgusted mood would overspecify by using multiple characteristics to describe each object. In the condition of brand useful it was expected that the descriptions would incorporate the brand name of the object, to make a distinction and identification from the other two objects; but most importantly as a description of the attribute of the object. Thus, in the condition of brand useless it was not expected to have brand attributes in the descriptions because the objects cannot be differentiated by their brand name. 4.1 Participants Sixty six undergraduate students (52 females, 14 males, mean age 22 years old) from Tilburg University School of Humanities took part in this experiment in exchange for course credits. All the participants were native speakers of Dutch. 17

18 4.2 Materials Positive and negative mood was induced by means of previously validated film clips, the film clips were presented on a computer. For the control condition a neutral film was also included, the film clip Discovery Channel Specials Alaska: Glacial: Denali and the Inside Passage was used taken from Rottenberg, Ray and Gross (2007). After viewing the film clip participants observed twenty stimuli materials consisting of three different objects, they were asked to describe the object indicated by an arrow. The stimuli materials were divided in two conditions. In the condition of brand useful the participants observed three objects with different brands (see figure 1), and in the condition of brand useless the participants observed three objects with the same brand (see figure 2). Participants described ten objects in each condition. The experiment was conducted in Dutch. Figure 1. Condition of Brand Useful From left to right: Ipad mini, Samsung T3, and Sony TS. Figure 2. Condition of Brand Useless From left to right: Samsung Galaxy Y, Samsung Galaxy S4, and Samsung M Pro. 18

19 4.3 Procedures The participants were randomly assigned to three conditions of emotions (happiness, disgust, neutral). Each participant was seated in individual cubicles with a computer and a set of headphones with microphone. They were informed that the instructions were presented on a monitor and their voices were being recorded because they needed to complete a speaking task. In order to have their agreement they signed a consent form. After they signed the written consent, participants were instructed to describe the object indicated by an arrow to a person who does not see the objects; participants were also asked to speak clearly in the microphone and when their description of the object was made they could press SPACE bar in order to continue to the next image (for instructions see the appendix). For ethical reasons the participants in the disgust condition had the opportunity to watch a happy video at the end of the experiment, the video used for this was one of the film clips that this research validated during the pre-test. The video was the music video Happy by Pharrel Williams of the Despicable Me OST. 4.4 Measures To investigate whether the induced emotion remained during and after the task, the emotions were measured twice: after the participants watched the film clip, and after they finished the task. The study used the response format normally used in the Mood Introspection Scale (BMIS; Mayer & Gaschke, 1988; Kempe et al., 2012). The Differential Emotions Scale (DES) as in Phillippot (1993) was used to avoid revealing the emotion of interest by letting participants rate 10 affective states, although only two affective states were of interest ( sad, happy, guilt, fear, shame, disgust, energetic, angry, pride, nervous ). After the participants watched the film clip and after the task, they were asked to report how they felt at this moment with a seven-point scale (rating from 1= not at all, to 7= extremely ). 19

20 4.5 Results Validation of mood induction An analysis of participant self-rated mood confirmed that mood induction was effective. Disgusted participants rated the disgust emotion significantly higher than their happy emotion, F(2,63)=93.49; p<.001 (see figure 3). The results showed as well that happy participants rated the happy emotion significantly higher than their disgust emotion, F(2,63)=28.62; p<.001 (see figure 4). Figure 3. Scale emotions for disgusted participants during and after the task (part 1, part2) 7 Emotion Scale Disgusted Participants Mean scores emotions Part 1 Part 2 0 Disgust Happiness Neutral Emotion 20

21 Figure 4. Scale emotions for happy participants during and after the task (part 1, part 2) 7 Emotion Scale Happy Participants Mean scores emotions Part 1 Part 2 0 Disgust Happiness Neutral Emotion This research investigated if the mood induction remained after the task. Therefore, two variables were measured for both conditions: during the task, and after the task (see table 3). The mean score for happy mood during the task was (M=5.95, SD=.78), which showed a decrease of happiness after the task (M=4.14, SD=1.42). The mean score for disgust mood during the task was (M=6.27, SD=1.51), which also showed a decrease of disgust after the task was (M=3.36, SD=2.17). Table 3. Mean scores happy mood and disgust mood During the task After the task Emotion Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Happiness 5.95 (.78) 4.14 (1.42) Disgust 6.27 (1.51) 3.36 (2.17) The affective scales that indicated a neutral state were: happy, energetic, and pride (see table 4). The three affective states were measured as: happy1, energetic1, pride1 (during the task), and happy2, energetic2, pride2 (after the task). The mean scores for neutral mood are seen in table 4. These affective scales also showed a small decrease of the neutral state after the task. 21

22 Table 4. Mean scores neutral mood During the task After the task Emotion Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Happy 4.91 (1.41) 3.59 (1.40) Energetic 3.86 (1.55) 3.50 (1.53) Pride 3.64 (1.67) 2.73 (1.57) Based on these results we can conclude that the participants did not experience the emotion elicited anymore after the task. This could be because the duration of the film clip was not long enough, or because the influence of other emotions such as being tired, bored, confused, relieved, or just because the emotions elicited wore off. The implication of this finding is discussed in the next chapter Validation of language production task Due to the finding that mood induction was no longer effective after the task, and that there might be a difference between the beginning of the experiment compared to the end of the experiment, the independent variables of the study were divided in two parts, in order to investigate if the language produced had a significant change. The first ten stimuli of images belong to part one, and the remaining ten stimuli of images to part two. The analysis measured dependent variables of brand, size, color, shape, sum of properties, and length. The use of brand names The independent variables were usefulness with two levels (useful and useless), and part with two levels (part one and part two). Henceforth, we refer to the independent variables as brand useful, brand useless (part one), and brand useful2, brand useless2 (part two) as seen in table 5. There was no significant effect of emotion on naming the brand, F(2,63)=0.46, p=.62, although the analysis confirmed a significant effect of part on the use of brand names, participants used less brand name in part two F(2,63)=9.35, p=.003. Surprisingly participants used the brand more in the condition of brand useless, independent of their emotion. Disgusted participants named the brand more than happy 22

23 participants. The mean scores of brand use were (M=.62, SD=.28) in disgust emotion; and (M=.55, SD=.27) in happy emotion. For brand useless the mean scores were (M=.84, SD=.20) in disgust emotion; and (M=.82, SD=.27) in happy emotion. However, none of these scores differed significantly. As mentioned above participants started to use less brand names during the second part (see figure 5). Table 5. Emotions effects on the use of brand names in descriptions Part 1 Part 2 Brand Useful Brand Useless Brand Useful2 Brand Useless2 Emotion Mean(SD) Mean(SD) Mean(SD) Mean(SD) Disgust.62 (.28).84 (.20).63 (.32).65 (.27) Happiness.55 (.27).82 (.27).53 (.32).56 (.29) Neutral.69 (.31).78 (.28).51 (.34).62 (.30) Figure 5. Mood effects on brand property Brand Name Mean use of brand name Disgust Happiness Neutral Emotion Useful Useless Useful2 Useless2 Mood effects on independent variables brand useful and brand useless during part one and two of the experiment. The use of size The independent variables were usefulness with two levels (useful and useless), and part with two levels (part one and part two). Henceforth, we refer to the independent variables as size useful, size useless (part one), and size useful2, size useless2 (part two) as seen in table 6. There was a significant effect of the 23

24 emotion elicited on size use, F(2,63)=5.94, p=.004, as well a significant effect of the parts on size useless, F(2,63)=7.90, p=.007. Participants used the size attribute more in the useless condition. Happy participants used the size more than disgusted participants in their descriptions. The mean scores of size useful were (M=.10, SD=.13) in happy emotion, which are higher than the scores in disgust (M=.07, SD=.98). In the size useless there is a difference between happiness (M=.0850, SD=.10), and disgust (M=.0855, SD=.09). Participants started to use the size more in the second part (see figure 6). Table 6. Emotion effects on the use of size in descriptions Part 1 Part 2 Size Useful Size Useless Size Useful2 Size Useless2 Emotion Mean(SD) Mean(SD) Mean(SD) Mean(SD) Disgust.07 (.09).0855 (.09).12 (.13).27 (.22) Happiness.10 (.13).850 (.10).23 (.21).28 (.16) Neutral.11 (.16).15 (.13).24 (.18).42 (.21) Figure 6. Mood effects on size property Size Mean use of size Disgust Happiness Neutral Emotion Useful Useless Useful2 Useless2 Mood effects on independent variables size useful and size useless during part one and two of the experiment. 24

25 The use of color The independent variables were usefulness with two levels (useful and useless), and part with two levels (part one and part two). Henceforth, we refer to the independent variables as color useful, color useless (part one), and color useful2, color useless2 (part two) as seen in table 7. There was no significant effect of emotion on the use of color, F(2,63)=.78, p=.459; there was no significant effect of part on the use of color, F(2,63)=1.18, p=.28. The mean scores for color useful were (M=.57, SD=.30) in happy emotion; and (M=.49, SD=.26) in disgust emotion. For color useless the mean scores were (M=.51, SD=.30) in happy emotion; and (M=.43, SD=.33) in disgust emotion (see figure 7). Table 7. Emotion effects on the use of color in descriptions Part 1 Part 2 Color Useful Color Useless Color Useful2 Color Useless2 Emotion Mean(SD) Mean(SD) Mean(SD) Mean(SD) Disgust.49 (.26).43 (.33).56 (.21).47 (.25) Happiness.57 (.30).51 (.30).64 (.17).55 (.18) Neutral.51 (.36).45 (.31).63 (.29).49 (.29) Figure 7. Mood effects on color property Color Mean use of color Disgust Happiness Neutral Emotion Useful Useless Useful2 Useless2 Mood effects on independent variables color useful and color useless during part one and two of the experiment. 25

26 The use of shape The independent variables were usefulness with two levels (useful and useless), and part with two levels (part one and part two). Henceforth, we refer to the independent variables as shape useful, shape useless (part one), and shape useful2, shape useless2 (part two) as seen in table 8. There was no significant effect of the emotion elicited on the use of shape, F(2,63)=2.37, p=.102; although there was a significant difference between the parts on the use of shape, F(2,63)=5.48; p=.02. In disgust mood the mean scores of shape useful were (M=.15, SD=.15), which are lower than the scores in the second part (M=.17, SD=.10). On the other hand, the mean scores of shape useful in happy mood were (M=.14, SD=.15), which are higher than the scores in the second part (M=.13, SD=.12). In the case of shape useless for disgusted participants during the first part the mean scores were (M=.15, SD=.17), which are lower than the scores in the second part (M=.29, SD=.15). For happy participants the mean scores of shape useless were (M=.19, SD=.12) in the first part, which are lower than the scores in the second part (M=.22, SD=.13). Participants started to use the shape more during the second part of the experiment, particularly in the useless condition. Useful condition showed a decrease of use in the second part for happy participants (see figure 8). Table 8. Emotion effects on the use of shape in descriptions Part 1 Part 2 Shape Useful Shape Useless Shape Useful2 Shape Useless2 Emotion Mean(SD) Mean(SD) Mean(SD) Mean(SD) Disgust.15 (.15).15 (.17).17 (.10).29 (.15) Happiness.14 (.15).19 (.12).13 (.12).22 (.13) Neutral.20 (.16).18 (.14).17 (.14).30 (.14) 26

27 Mean use of shape Figure 8. Mood effects of shape property Shape Disgust Happiness Neutral Emotion Useful Useless Useful2 Useless2 Mood effects on independent variables shape useful and shape useless during part one and two of the experiment. The sum of the properties We also investigated whether the sum of properties such as brand, size, color, and shape differentiated between happy mood and disgust mood. For this reason we measured the sum of properties based on the condition of brand useful and the condition of brand useless. In the sum of attributes the independent variables were usefulness with two levels (useful and useless), and part with two levels (part one and part two). For part one of the experiment the independent variables were sum useful, and sum useless. For part two the independent variables were sum useful2, and sum useless2 (see table 9). There was no significant effect of emotion on sum of properties, F(2,63)=.63, p=.53. There was no significant effect of parts on sum of properties, F(2,63)=.33, p=.71. The mean scores for the sum of properties in useful condition were (M=1.38, SD=.41) in happy emotion; and (M=1.34, SD=.46) in disgust emotion. For the sum of properties in the useless condition the mean scores were (M=1.62, SD=.36) where the participants were in a happy emotion; and (M=1.53, SD=.45) where the participants experienced disgust (see figure 9). 27

28 Table 9. Emotion effects on the sum of properties Part 1 Part 2 Sum Useful Sum Useless Sum Useful2 Sum Useless2 Emotion Mean(SD) Mean(SD) Mean(SD) Mean(SD) Disgust 1.34 (.46) 1.53 (.45) 1.49 (.43) 1.69 (.53) Happiness 1.38 (.41) 1.62 (.36) 1.53 (.41) 1.62 (.38) Neutral 1.54 (.60) 1.57 (.42) 1.57 (.57) 1.85 (.65) Figure 9. Mood effects sum of properties Sum of properties: brand, size, color, and shape Mean sum of properties Disgust Happiness Neutral Emotion Useful Useless Useful2 Useless2 Mood effects on independent variables sum of properties useful and sum of properties useless during part one and two of the experiment. The use of length In addition to the sum of properties the study investigated how long the descriptions of the participants were, in terms of the number of words. For this reason we measured the length of the descriptions based on the condition of brand useful and the condition of brand useless. In the length the independent variables were usefulness with two levels (useful and useless), and part with two levels (part one and part two). For part one of the experiment the independent variables were length useful, and length useless. For part two the independent variables were length useful2, and length useless2 (see table 10). There was a significant effect of emotion on the length of the descriptions, F(2,63)=2.99, p=.05. Happy participants spoke more in useful condition (M=7.36, SD=2.79), 28

29 than disgusted participants (M=7.29, SD=4.81). Although in useless condition disgusted participants spoke more (M=7.47, SD=5.83), than happy participants (M=6.79, SD=3.15) as seen in table 10. There was no significant effect of parts on the length of the descriptions, F(2,63)=2.49, p=.09. Happy participants produced longer descriptions in the useful condition. In contrast, disgusted participants produced longer descriptions in the useless condition (see figure 10). Table 10. Emotion effects on the length of the descriptions Part 1 Part 2 Length Useful Length Useless Length Useful2 Length Useless2 Emotion Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Mean (SD) Disgust 7.29 (4.81) 7.47 (5.83) 7.96 (3.59) 8.09 (5.72) Happiness 7.36 (2.79) 6.79 (3.15) 9.50 (3.76) 8.25 (3.07) Neutral (9.57) 9.97 (9.86) (9.68) (10.26) Mean use of length Figure 10. Mood effects length of descriptions Length Disgust Happiness Neutral Emotion Useful Useless Useful2 Useless2 Emotions effects of usefulness, and number of words on the mean length of utterances 4.6 Conclusions The results confirm that the mood induction was effective during the task, although it is noteworthy that participants were not in the emotional state after the task. The study was divided in the two parts as mentioned in the previous chapter. The analysis demonstrated differences in the descriptions of both parts. 29

30 During the second part the participants made longer descriptions, and used more attributes. Nevertheless, this was not affected by the emotion elicited. Speakers prefer certain properties over others when referring to objects (Pechmann, 1989). This particular finding is reflected to the results of the experiment. The study assumed that participants named the brand more in the condition of brand useful, because of the need to differentiate the objects. However, we observed the opposite pattern; the brand name was mentioned more in the condition where it was not useful. In addition, those participants with negative mood tended to name the brand most. Therefore, the hypothesis that positive people tend to use brand names in their descriptions is rejected. This could be the case because positive participants preferred to use size as an attribute instead of the brand name. The usefulness-factor was used differently in both of the emotion elicited. The participants used more brand names in the condition of brand useless. The properties such as size and shape are attributes in the useful condition, and objects with different brand could be a motivation to make longer descriptions. On the contrary, objects with the same brand could implicate a major impact and motivation for naming the brand. The results of the experiment also showed that participants used a similar pattern for describing the objects no matter of the emotion they were in. There is a difference between the descriptions of happy and disgusted participants. Happy participants spoke more and used size as a property in their descriptions than disgusted participants. Therefore, the hypothesis that disgusted participants tend to use more attributes and create longer descriptions is rejected. It is noteworthy that there is a difference on the descriptions during the first part and second part of the experiment. The first part showed that disgusted participants named the brand most during useless condition. On the other hand, in the second part disgusted participants used shape as an attribute during useless condition, and happy participants used size most in their descriptions during useless condition. Though, during useless condition in the 30

31 first part of the experiment happy participants did not use size as an attribute. The next chapter will discuss the implications of these findings. 31

32 Chapter 5 General discussion The present study explored the effect of emotions on the type of attributes and properties used during the descriptions of objects. The purpose of this research was to find out whether positive mood had an influence on the use of brand names, and if negative mood resulted in more detail oriented descriptions. For this purpose a language production experiment was set up. This experiment used two conditions. In condition one, the brand name was a useful attribute in distinguishing the object from competitor objects (the condition name was brand useful ), while in condition two, this was not the case (the condition name was brand useless ). It was also of interest to check if the participants remained in the emotion elicited during the task, because their emotion scores dropped considerably after the task. Therefore, the experiment was divided in two parts in order to have a comparison of descriptions during part one, and part two. In this research, it was argued that negative people are detail oriented, and concrete in their descriptions. Furthermore, using more details would increase the length of the descriptions in a negative mood. It was also argued that positive people based their descriptions more on social judgments and stereotypes; therefore naming a brand would occur more often in people in a positive mood. However, the results from the experiment of identification of objects showed that negative people used more brand names than positive people; this result was reflected during both part one and two of the experiment, at the same time these participants opted for naming the brand in the condition of brand useful. Although the condition of brand useful was influenced by the emotion elicited in part one of the experiment, where disgusted participants used the brand as attribute for describing the objects, there was no impact of emotion during part two. On the other hand, people in a negative mood spoke less in their descriptions than people in a positive mood; these participants were not detail oriented whatsoever because they did not use other attributes for describing the objects. According to Pechmann (1989), the use of size and color are the most 32

33 usable properties by participants when they are describing objects. This research showed that happy people preferred the use of size compared to disgusted people. Furthermore, when persons experience disgust they speak less, but they remember and use brands, as shown in the results when participants mentioned the brand name in their descriptions. In addition to the experiment of identification of objects a pilot study was conducted. The aim of the pilot study was to check if modern film clips were effective in eliciting emotions. The results have shown that the emotion elicited was effective, though the emotion was not strong enough to remain during the entire experiment, this would suggest that participants had implication of other emotions, such as being tired, bored, or excited that they ended the task. Future studies should employ film clips with longer duration, or film clips validated from previous studies. Further research in this field could explore the best duration to stay in an emotional state by means of film clips. The results mentioned above are somewhat surprising, in that they do not match with the hypotheses of the present study. According to Forgas (1999), negative moods results in more careful, systematic, concrete, and detail oriented discourses. The results for the present study are not in line with Forgas study, in the way that participants in a negative mood spoke less and their descriptions were not concrete. A possible explanation is that perhaps disgusted people were not focused on the task they needed to perform, and they misunderstood the instructions. This would suggest that they used more brand names because they thought that recognizing brands was their task, therefore this finding could demonstrate that they used brand names to create concrete descriptions. Another implication could be that disgusted participants spoke less and misunderstood the task of the experiment, because according to van Berkum (2013), people in a negative mood rely less on attention. Hopefully these findings will open the interest to investigate the effects that the disgust emotion have on the perception and attributes of brands. Another finding in the present study is that participants in a happy mood used size as an attribute for describing objects and spoke more than disgusted people. These results are in line with the predictions made by Forgas (2007), 33