Journal Articles
Abstract:
Five experimental studies explored the phenomenon of affective transfer in goal systems. We find that affect associated with goal attainment may be transferred to means cognitively associated with such goal-events, and that factors affecting the dimensions of transfer include the magnitude of affect invested in the goal, the quality of invested affect and the strength of association between a given means and the goal-event. Accordingly, the transfer mechanism was shown to impact the magnitude of affect experienced in regard to the means in question, as well as its kind (involving, e.g., promotion-type affect or prevention-type affect), and was shown to influence the interpersonal feelings toward others perceived as helpful to the attainment of various goals. © 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.