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MENTAL MODEL · M4148

Affect-as-Information Theory

Affect-as-Information Theory
BehaviorHigh supportSocial Psychology
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Updated 2026-08-08

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INTRODUCTION

English translation pending.

CORE DEFINITION

Norbert Schwarz and Gerald Clore developed the affect-as-information approach in the 1980s. The core claim is that when people evaluate an object and hold no ready-made attitude toward it, they ask themselves how they feel about it and use the current affective state as the answer. The mood is treated as informative rather than as noise, and its influence is strongest when the target is unfamiliar and the judgment is made quickly. A key qualification is misattribution: the effect weakens when feelings are attributed to an irrelevant source such as the weather, since the feeling then stops serving as evidence about the target. The theory thus predicts that mood effects disappear whenever the true source of the mood becomes salient.

SCAFFOLDING EFFECT

psychology

Reduce cognitive load

- Trace the feeling: ask whether this mood belongs to the target or arrived from somewhere else. - Isolate the source: change context and check whether the judgment moves with it. - Delay the call: postpone consequential decisions until the affective signal can be discounted.

anchor

Anchor fast decisions

Affect normally serves as a fast summary of how things are going, which makes it a cheap substitute for a full evaluation. When no attitude is stored, that summary gets applied to whatever is currently under judgment, because the mind does not automatically tag where a feeling came from. The judgment inherits the mood. Interventions work by restoring the tag: once the mood is attributed elsewhere, it loses its evidential value and the judgment reverts toward the underlying information. Hence mood effects shrink when an unrelated cause is made salient.

MINIMUM ACTION

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Source support: Explicit

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