research
...e same affective states can have different processing implications because of the mood-as-input model (Hirt, McDonald, Levine, Melton, & Martin,1999;Martin et al.,1993). This model states that positive and negative moods can cause people to continue processing or to stop processing information, depending on the persons interpretation of their mood. In studies done by Martin and his colleagues, the instructions during research directed people toward a particular interpretation of their affect, and led to different amounts of processing. Information Legitimacy Most people feel anxious in front of a crowd or while giving a speech, but there are many factors that can effect a persons perception of legitimacy of an influence attempt. A message could be seen as illegitimate because it is not interesting to the recipient, or because the communicator’s intentions are unclear, or because there is something wrong with the context of the message (Bohner, Weinerth,2001). A person who has a negative affect when receiving a persuasive message and has no question to the legitimacy of the message is likely to have more systematic processing of the persuasive message as stated in the mood-as-information model(Schwartz,1990). Our prediction goes in accordance with the mood-as-information and mood-as-input models. We are expanding this area of research by not only testing mood and persuasion, but specifically stress and anxiety and there effect on persuasive messages. The article is about problems caused by students drinking and campus curfew. Our hypothesis is stress and anxiety will have less of an effect on persuasion by a person of authority and a person of no authority. The non-stress group with authority should be persuaded the most. Methods Participants Participants were volunteer students attending UNCG enrolled in the P...