Emotion and meta-cognition: Implications for attitude change

This article describes the basic psychological processes by which emotions can influence attitude change. The first part of the review focuses on the link between emotion and cognition, describing how emotions can influence information processing (e.g., how emotions affect the amount and direction of thoughts generated in response to a persuasive proposal). Next, we describe how emotions can not only influence the thoughts that come to mind, but also affect what we think about those thoughts (meta-cognition). In line with this reasoning, recent research in meta-cognition reveals that emotions can influence whether people rely on or doubt what they are thinking and also about what they are feeling at the time. Specifically, different paradigms demonstrate that emotions can validate or invalidate our own emotions (e.g., feeling sad about being happy) and thoughts (e.g., feeling angry about a thought). Furthermore, different forms of cognition can validate or invalidate both what we think and also what we feel (e.g., as a function of the ease with which thoughts and feelings come to mind).