mood-as-information theory
a theory postulating that a person often uses his or her current emotional state or mood as a piece of information when making social judgments. The theory also proposes that current affective states can influence the processing strategy that people adopt when making decisions. Specifically, negative affective states indicate something problematic in the current social situation and thus encourage careful and deliberative processing of social information. In contrast, positive affective states indicate that the current social situation is satisfactory and thus encourage less effort in deliberative processing of social information. [originally developed by U.S. psychologists Norbert Schwarz (1953– ), Gerald L. Clore (1939– ), and their colleagues]