How to Cite

Forgas, Joseph: Affect and Thought: The Relationship Between Feeling and Thinking, in Sternberg, Robert J. and Funke, Joachim (Eds.): The Psychology of Human Thought: An Introduction, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2019, p. 341–361. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.470.c6681

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https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.470
ISBN 978-3-947732-33-3 (PDF)
ISBN 978-3-947732-34-0 (Softcover)
ISBN 978-3-947732-35-7 (Hardcover)

Published

07/31/2019

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Authors

Joseph Forgas

Affect and Thought: The Relationship Between Feeling and Thinking

  1. Affective states represent evolutionary adaptation and their main function is to inform / alert the organism and to promote appropriate responses in a given situation.
  2. Affect can influence thinking through multiple mechanisms, influencing both the content and valence of what we think, as well as how we think (information processing effects).
  3. Affect congruence in memory, attention, associations and judgments is typically produced by the selective priming of affect-congruent associations.
  4. More open and productive thinking tends to magnify affect infusion.
  5. Positive affect tends to promote a faster, more heuristic and also more creative thinking style. Negative affect promotes a slower, more attentive and more externally oriented thinking style.
  6. In some situations, mild negative affect can improve memory and judgments and also produce more effective social behaviors.