Reconciling Mood Congruency and Mood Regulation: The Role of Psychological Distance

Two important research streams on affect are mood congruency, which states that people respond in accordance with their mood, and mood regulation, which states that people try to manage their mood. We propose that an important moderator of such mood effects is the psychological distance between individuals and the consequences of their decisions. Mood congruency is predicted for psychologically proximal outcomes, which have strong affective feedback and can therefore impact current mood. This conceptualization is supported in a series of experiments using manipulations and measurements of both mood and psychological distance. A meta-analytic classification complements these experiments by demonstrating that psychological distance reconciles prior mood congruency and mood regulation studies. We conclude by discussing the theoretical implications of this work for the interaction of affect and cognition.