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Positive and negative mood effects on solving a resource dilemma

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Social Dilemmas and Cooperation

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Abstract

A resource dilemma is a situation in which maximizing individual profits contradicts the conservation of a resource. How do people solve a resource dilemma if they are in positive or negative mood? There are some models which offer different explanations and predict different outcomes: (1) the cognitive capacity explanation expects that people in negative mood are hampered in performing a cognitive task because their cognitive capacity is reduced by thinking about their emotional state; (2) the mood repair explanation assumes that people in negative mood overexploit the resource to improve their mood; (3) the motivational explanation claims two different strategies depending on mood state. The hypotheses derived from the three models were tested in two experiments. The results lend some support to the motivational explanation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

    Regina Vollmeyer

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  1. Regina Vollmeyer
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Abteilung für Psychologie, Universität Bielefeld, Postfach 100131, D-33501, Bielefeld, Germany

    Ulrich Schulz

  2. Institut für Mathematische Wirtschaftsforschung, Universität Bielefeld, Postfach 100131, D-33501, Bielefeld, Germany

    Wulf Albers

  3. ZUMA, Zentrum für Umfragen, Methoden und Analysen, Postfach 122155, D-68072, Mannheim, Germany

    Ulrich Mueller

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© 1984 Springer-Verlag Berlin · Heidelberg

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Vollmeyer, R. (1984). Positive and negative mood effects on solving a resource dilemma. In: Schulz, U., Albers, W., Mueller, U. (eds) Social Dilemmas and Cooperation. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-78860-4_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-78860-4_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-78862-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-78860-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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