René Ziegler
email: rene.ziegler@uni-tuebingen.de

Axel M Burger

Mood and the impact of individuating information on the evaluation of ingroup and outgroup members: The role of mood-based expectancies

Keywords: mood, intergroup judgments, ingroup-outgroup, individuating information, processing, expectancies

This research investigates the role of mood-based expectancies regarding a target's group membership for the impact of individuating information on target judgments. We argue that target judgments in both positive and negative mood may be more or less affected by individuating information depending on whether the target is an ingroup member or an outgroup member. Specifically, in a competitive intergroup setting it should be less congruent with moodbased expectancies when individuals in positive (negative) mood learn that an outgroup (ingroup) member rather than an ingroup (outgroup) member has succeeded. Hence, unexpected (i.e., mood-incongruent) category information should elicit more attention than expected (moodcongruent) category information. More important, subsequent individuating information (high vs. low target competence) should be processed more effortful and influence target judgments more strongly given mood-incongruent (vs. mood-congruent) category membership. Findings of an experiment support these predictions. Results are discussed in regard to implications for different research domains.

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Mood and the impact of individuating information on the evaluation of ingroup and outgroup members: The role of mood-based expectancies A number of studies has investigated the role of transient affective states in intergroup evaluations. In particular, existing research has examined the role of affective states with respect to simple (e.g. [START_REF] Forgas | Us and them: Mood effects on intergroup[END_REF] or crossed categorization (e.g. [START_REF] Crisp | Crossed categorization and intergroup bias: The moderating roles of intergroup and affective context[END_REF][START_REF] Kenworthy | Negative incidental affect and mood congruency in crossed categorization[END_REF][START_REF] Urada | The impact of positive mood and category importance on crossed categorization effects[END_REF]. Surprisingly, however, the interplay of mood and both categorical and individuating information in an intergroup context has hardly been investigated [START_REF] Abele | Positive mood and in-group-out-group differentiation in a minimal group setting[END_REF]. Hence, currently we know very little about whether people in positive or negative mood differ in the extent to which individuating information affects evaluations of ingroup and outgroup targets. Given the paucity of research on this issue, the present research examines whether and when individuating information affects target evaluations made by individuals in positive or negative mood. In this respect, we first describe what may be predicted on the basis of existing research regarding impression formation of ingroup and outgroup members in combination with research on affect and cognition. We then outline a recently proposed mood-based expectancies approach (Ziegler, 2010) which leads to departing predictions. These predictions are tested in an experiment on the role of categorical and individuating information in positive and negative mood in the context of intergroup competition [START_REF] Sherif | Intergroup cooperation and competition: The Robbers Cave experiment[END_REF].

Impression formation about ingroup and outgroup members

Impressions formed about outgroup members are less based on individuating information than impressions about ingroup members (e.g. [START_REF] Ruscher | Individuating processes in competition: Interpersonal versus intergroup[END_REF].

Relatedly, outgroups are often perceived as more homogeneous than ingroups (e.g. [START_REF] Linville | Perceived distributions of characteristics of ingroup and outgroup members: Empirical evidence and a computer simulation[END_REF][START_REF] Quattrone | The perception of variability within ingroups and outgroups[END_REF]. At the same time, research on affect and cognition has shown that when people process information or make judgments and decisions, positive mood is associated with more reliance on abstract, categorical knowledge structures such

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Mood and Intergroup Evaluations 4 as stereotypes [START_REF] Bodenhausen | Happiness and stereotypic thinking in social judgment[END_REF], scripts [START_REF] Bless | Mood and the use of scripts: Does happy mood make people really mindless[END_REF] or heuristics [START_REF] Mackie | Cognitive deficits and the mediation of positive affect in persuasion[END_REF]. In comparison, negative mood is associated with a tendency to process concrete details of available information (Bless et al., 1996) and to invest substantial effort in the processing of such information (e.g. [START_REF] Bless | Mood and persuasion: A cognitive response analysis[END_REF]cf. Schwarz & Clore, 2007).

Based on these lines of research one could expect that the effects of a perceiver's mood and of a target's ingroup or outgroup status simply add up. That is, in positive mood processing effort in regard to individuating information about a target person might be relatively low [START_REF] Schwarz | Feelings as information: Informational and motivational functions of affective states[END_REF], particularly so with respect to an outgroup member [START_REF] Ruscher | Individuating processes in competition: Interpersonal versus intergroup[END_REF]. In contrast, in negative mood, processing effort in regard to individuating information might be relatively high [START_REF] Schwarz | Feelings as information: Informational and motivational functions of affective states[END_REF], particularly so with respect to an ingroup member [START_REF] Ruscher | Individuating processes in competition: Interpersonal versus intergroup[END_REF].

More generally, existing models regarding the impact of mood on information processing such as the mood-as-information approach [START_REF] Schwarz | Feelings as information: Informational and motivational functions of affective states[END_REF][START_REF] Schwarz | Feelings as information: Implications for affective influences on information processing[END_REF]; see also [START_REF] Bless | Mood and the use of general knowledge structures[END_REF][START_REF] Clore | Mood and Intergroup Evaluations 22 Affective feelings as feedback: Some cognitive consequences[END_REF] suggest differential effects of positive versus negative mood on processing strategies. Specifically, while the informative function of positive mood is assumed to lead to top-down processing strategies, the informative function of negative mood is assumed to lead to more data-driven processing strategies. Moreover, the impact of sad mood on processing style is presumed to be less easy to override than the impact of happy moods [START_REF] Schwarz | Feelings as information: Informational and motivational functions of affective states[END_REF]2001; see also [START_REF] Wegener | Positive mood can increase or decrease message scrutiny: The hedonic contingency view of mood and message processing[END_REF]. Hence, processing under sad moods is presumed to be less flexible than processing under happy moods (e.g. [START_REF] Schwarz | Feelings as information: Implications for affective influences on information processing[END_REF].

Mood-congruent expectancies and processing effort

Divergent predictions, however, may be derived from the mood-congruent expectancies model (MEM) which has been developed and tested with respect to persuasion processes (Ziegler, 2010). The MEM suggests a single mechanism according to which both positive and

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Mood and Intergroup Evaluations 5 negative mood may lead to more or less effortful information processing as long as other factors unrelated to mood do not constrain processing motivation and ability to be high or low (cf.

Wegener [START_REF] Wegener | Understanding effects of mood through the elaboration likelihood and flexible correction models[END_REF]. This approach is based on findings regarding the effects of mood on expectancies, that is, more positive (negative) expectations in positive (negative) mood (e.g. [START_REF] Bower | Mood and memory[END_REF][START_REF] Mayer | Mood-congruent judgment is a general effect[END_REF], and on research regarding the role of mood-unrelated expectancies for the processing of persuasive messages (e.g. Ziegler, Diehl, & Ruther, 2002). Integrating these lines of research, Ziegler (2010) argued that moods also entail mood-congruent expectancies regarding factors involved in persuasive communication (cf. [START_REF] Petty | Attitude change: Multiple roles for persuasion variables[END_REF]. For instance, mood may implicate expectations regarding the valence of source characteristics (cf. [START_REF] Mayer | Mood-congruent judgment is a general effect[END_REF]. Conceiving of persuasive communication as a sequential process (e.g. [START_REF] Kruglanski | Persuasion by a single route: A view from the unimodel[END_REF], the MEM holds that such mood-based expectations impact message processing when pertinent information is salient in an early phase of the communication process (Higgins, 1996). Specifically, processing effort then depends on whether such early information confirms or disconfirms mood-based expectancies. As a result, both individuals in an elated mood and individuals in a slightly depressed mood may evince surprise and more effortful processing of a subsequent persuasive message when mood-based expectancies are disconfirmed rather than confirmed (cf. [START_REF] Olson | Expectancies[END_REF][START_REF] Reisenzein | The subjective experience of surprise[END_REF].

Consistent with this mood-based expectations perspective, two experiments showed that people in both positive and negative mood processed a message more thoroughly when initial source information suggested the source to have a mood-incongruent characteristic rather than a mood-congruent characteristic (Ziegler, 2010; see also Ziegler & Diehl, in press). For instance, while argument strength affected attitudes and the favorability of message-related thoughts (cf.

Cacioppo [START_REF] Cacioppo | Social psychological procedures for cognitive response assessment: The thought listing technique[END_REF][START_REF] Petty | Communication and persuasion: Central and peripheral routes to attitude change[END_REF] of individuals in a positive mood confronted with a dislikable source, it did not affect their reactions when the source was likable. In contrast,

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Mood and Intergroup Evaluations 6 while argument strength affected reactions of individuals in a negative mood when the source was likable, it did not affect their reactions when the source was dislikable.

Mood-congruent expectancies and intergroup judgments

We propose that mood-congruent expectancies also play a role for judgments regarding ingroup and outgroup targets. Specifically, we argue that mood-based expectancies regarding category membership of a target affect the impact of individuating information on person perception [START_REF] Fiske | A continuum of impression formation, from category-based to individuating processes: Influences of information and motivation on attention and interpretation[END_REF]. For example, in a competitive intergroup context [START_REF] Sherif | Intergroup cooperation and competition: The Robbers Cave experiment[END_REF] mood may affect expectancies regarding group membership of a successful person. As a consequence, when processing motivation and ability due to mood-unrelated factors are neither particularly high nor low (cf. [START_REF] Forgas | Us and them: Mood effects on intergroup[END_REF][START_REF] Wegener | Understanding effects of mood through the elaboration likelihood and flexible correction models[END_REF], an expectancyincongruent (vs. congruent) group membership of the successful competitor should lead perceivers to invest more effort in thinking about subsequent individuating information on the winner. As a result, individuating information should have a higher impact on target evaluations and target-related thoughts (cf. [START_REF] Fleming | Stigmatized Targets and Evaluation: Prejudice as a Determinant of Attribute Scrutiny and Polarization[END_REF] when target category membership is mood-incongruent (vs. mood-congruent).

Thus, diverging from what other models on mood and information processing [START_REF] Bless | Mood and the use of general knowledge structures[END_REF][START_REF] Clore | Mood and Intergroup Evaluations 22 Affective feelings as feedback: Some cognitive consequences[END_REF][START_REF] Schwarz | Feelings as information: Implications for affective influences on information processing[END_REF] would predict, the MEM suggests a symmetrical role of group membership for the processing of subsequent individuating information in positive and negative mood. In particular, processing should be flexible in both positive and negative mood, that is, a systematic (vs. non-systematic), data-driven processing strategy should be adopted given mood-incongruent (vs. mood-congruent) group membership. It is also worth noting that these predictions refer to a context in which the same experimenter-provided instructions prompt the exact same goal in individuals in different affective states [START_REF] Martin | Mood as input: People have to interpret the motivational implications of their moods[END_REF][START_REF] Schwarz | Feelings as information: Informational and motivational functions of affective states[END_REF][START_REF] Schwarz | Feelings as information: Implications for affective influences on information processing[END_REF].

The MEM further allows for the prediction that individuals in both positive and negative

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Mood and Intergroup Evaluations 7 mood will attend more to mood-incongruent as compared to mood-congruent group membership information. This should be the case because mood-incongruent information is assumed to be less expected than mood-congruent information (cf. [START_REF] Schützwohl | Surprise and schema strength[END_REF]. In this respect, it is worth noting that mood research has found higher attention in regard to mood-congruent (vs. moodincongruent) information. For instance, [START_REF] Forgas | Mood effects on person-perception judgments[END_REF] found that participants in sad (happy) mood spent more time reading negative (positive) as compared to positive (negative) details about a stranger. However, mood-unrelated research has shown that more attention may be devoted to expectancy-inconsistent (vs. expectancy-consistent) information. For instance, [START_REF] Belmore | Determinants of attention during impression formation[END_REF] found longer reading times in regard to behavior information that was inconsistent (vs. consistent) with trait-based expectancies. In the present research, in comparison, expectancies are assumed to depend on participants' mood and to refer to category membership.

Hence, reading times should be longer given mood-incongruent (i.e., unexpected) category information rather than mood-congruent (i.e., expected) category information. 1

It is important to point out the difference between the current mood-based expectancies perspective and extant studies that have investigated the role of expectancies for target evaluations in intergroup contexts. In particular, expectancy-violation theory [START_REF] Jussim | The nature of stereotypes: A comparison and integration of three theories[END_REF] assumes that when target characteristics violate expectations based on target group membership, target evaluations become more extreme in the direction of the expectancy violation (e.g. Bettencourt, Dill, Greathouse, Charlton, & Mulholland, 1997). Thus, research guided by expectancy-violation theory is concerned with category-based expectancies regarding individuating information. In comparison, the present research deals with the role of mood-based expectancies regarding categorical information.

The present research

The current research employed a competitive election scenario in which an ingroup and an outgroup member competed for a certain post. Participants in positive or negative mood got

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Mood and Intergroup Evaluations 8 informed whether the successful target person was an ingroup or an outgroup member.

Thereafter, individuating information regarding the winner's competence was presented to participants. Based on the MEM (Ziegler, 2010), we predicted that it would be less congruent with positive (negative) mood to learn that an outgroup (ingroup) member rather than an ingroup (outgroup) member has been elected. Hence, reading times were predicted to be longer given unexpected (i.e., mood-incongruent) as compared to expected (i.e., mood-congruent) information regarding the winner's group membership. Of greater importance, subsequent individuating information regarding target competence (high or low) was predicted to be processed more effortful and, hence, to have a stronger impact on target evaluations and target-related thoughts in mood-incongruent (as compared to mood congruent) conditions.

Method

Participants and Design. Participants were 106 students (51 male, 55 female, age: M = 23.10, SD = 2.64) at the University of Tuebingen. They participated in the study in return for a small reward worth about 1.20 Euro. They were randomly assigned to one of the experimental conditions in a Mood (positive vs. negative) x Group Membership (ingroup vs. outgroup) x

Competence (high vs. low) between-subjects factorial design.

Procedure and independent variables. Students were asked for participation in the university cafeteria building by a research assistant. In a quiet area, up to four participants took part in parallel. All materials were presented on a laptop. In an ostensible first study, participants were asked to spend eight minutes on writing a vivid report of either a happy or a sad life event [START_REF] Bless | Mood and the impact of category membership and individuating information[END_REF]. Embedded within several questions about this task were two manipulation check items which measured participants' current mood (1 = not at all happy / sad to 9 = very happy / sad).

The second study was said to be concerned with how people form impressions of others.

Participants read that they would be presented with information regarding a student who had been

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elected recently as a student representative in a board of the (fictitious) Future Trust of Baden-Wuerttemberg. Allegedly, a new support programme for student initiatives would be announced the following year which was open to groups of students proposing innovative project ideas settled at their own university. Each year, one or two of the submitted project proposals would be selected and get funded generously. Evaluation of the submitted proposals would be made by a committee which should also include one student member. Participants read that when the election of the student representative was about to take place, just two final candidates remained competing for the position, one from their own university and one from another university (University of Freiburg, both in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg).

To manipulate group membership, on the next page participants read that the student from their own university (ingroup condition) or from the other university (outgroup condition) had been elected. Further, they were informed that after the election an interview with the elected student had been published in a journal which they would get to read in order to form an impression of the student.

Information contained in the article differed so as to manipulate the elected student's level of competence. Specifically, the interview contained one of two sets of five pieces of competence information . Selection of these pieces of information was based on a pretest. In the high competence condition, all five pieces of information portrayed the student as very competent. In the low competence condition, all five pieces of information portrayed the student as hardly Dependent measures. All ratings were made on scales ranging from 1 to 7. To measure job suitability, participants were asked to respond to the item "The election of the student into the committee is ..." (unjustified to justified). Further, they indicated their agreement with the statement "The information in the journal article clearly speaks in favor of the suitability of the student for the committee position" (do not agree at all to fully agree). To check whether participants had accurately perceived the elected student's university affiliation, they were asked to write down from which university the chosen student came. All participants wrote down the affiliation actually presented to them. To provide evidence that the election of an ingroup member is more positively valenced than the election of an outgroup member, participants were asked "How happy did you feel about learning that a student of the mentioned university was elected into the committee?" (not at all happy to very happy). The question "How important was it to you to get an impression of the student representative" (not at all important to very important) assessed the importance of the impression formation task.

Participants were also asked to spend three minutes on writing down their thoughts while reading the information. Two independent raters blind to conditions coded thoughts as to whether they were related to the student's qualification or to something else. Qualification-related thoughts were further coded as favorable, unfavorable, or neutral. Interrater agreement was satisfactory (74%); disagreements were resolved by discussion.

Results

Unless noted otherwise, the data were analyzed by three-factorial Mood x Group Membership x Competence ANOVAs. As preliminary analyses including participants' gender as

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Mood and Intergroup Evaluations 11 a factor did not reveal any gender effects, gender will not be discussed further.

Mood.

Happiness and sadness responses were highly correlated (r = -.69, p < .0001) and averaged after reversing sadness scores. A t-test showed that participants' mood was more elated in happy mood conditions (M = 6.86; SD = 1.57) than in sad mood conditions (M = 4.50; SD = 1.91), t(104) = 6.92, p < .0001.

Valence of election outcome. Responses on felt happiness about the elected student's university affiliation revealed a group membership main effect, F(1, 98) = 14.78, p < .0001 (all other ps > .12). Participants felt happier when an ingroup member (M = 4.83; SD = 1.18) rather than an outgroup member had been elected (M = 4.06; SD = 0.89).

Target Evaluation. Job suitability ratings were averaged (r = .65, p < .001). An ANOVA revealed two effects (all other Fs < 1). First, the student was rated as more suitable for the position given high competence (M = 4.58; SD = 1.18) versus low competence (M = 3.49; SD = 1.21), F(1, 98) = 22.03, p < .0001. More important, the three-way interaction was significant, F(1, 98) = 4.08, p < .05. As the pattern of means shows (Figure 1, top panel), this interaction is in line with predictions. Specifically, target evaluations appear to be strongly affected by competence given mood-incongruent group membership (positive mood / outgroup member and negative mood / ingroup member). In comparison, target evaluations appear less affected by competence given mood-congruent group membership (positive mood / ingroup member and negative mood / outgroup member). In fact, an analysis of effects in incongruent conditions of mood and group membership showed, as predicted, that job suitability was affected by the level Target-related thoughts. A thought favorability index was computed by subtracting the number of unfavorable thoughts from the number of favorable thoughts (cf. [START_REF] Fleming | Stigmatized Targets and Evaluation: Prejudice as a Determinant of Attribute Scrutiny and Polarization[END_REF].

An ANOVA on this index (see Figure 1 Importance. The ANOVA on ratings of the importance of forming an impression about the target did not reveal any significant effect. Overall, ratings indicated moderate importance (M = 4.04; SD = 1.88). This suggests that the likelihood of effortful processing due to moodunrelated factors in the experimental setting was neither high nor low.

Reading times for group membership information. We analyzed the amount of time participants spent reading the page disclosing which of the two competing candidates had been elected. We controlled for individual differences in general reading speed by using reading time for prior instructions (i.e. up to the information that just two candidates had remained competing for the position) as a covariate. The competence factor was not included in this analysis because it was manipulated only after participants read about the election outcome. Mediation analysis. According to the MEM, reading times for group membership information should mediate the impact of mood (in)congruency on the effort invested in the processing of individuating information. In this respect, it is important to note that processing effort is inferred from the impact of competence (high vs. low) on target ratings. Hence, in this regard reading times are assumed to serve as a moderator of the impact of competence on target

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Mood and Intergroup Evaluations 14 ratings. Accordingly, the three-way interaction of mood, group membership, and competence should turn non-significant once the product of reading times with competence is controlled.

Instead, the reading times by competence interaction should be significant, showing that competence affects suitability ratings more strongly given long as compared to short reading times.

To test these predictions, job suitability was first regressed on mood, group membership, and competence (each effect-coded), their two-way and three-way products. This first step of the regression analysis, of course, exactly replicated the results of the ANOVA (i.e., significant competence main effect, t(98) = 4.69, p < .001; significant three-way interaction, t(98) = -2.02, p < .05). More important, in a second step reading times (unstandardized residuals, i.e., actual disclosure reading time minus the reading time predicted by the time spent on reading prior instructions), and the product of reading times and competence were also entered into the regression equation. This second step showed that the three-way interaction became nonsignificant, t(96) = -1,61, p > .11. 7 Further, the interaction of reading times and competence was significant t(96) = 2.36, p < .03. To probe this interaction, simple effects tests were conducted regarding the effect of competence on job suitability given short reading times (i.e., one standard deviation below the mean) and long reading times (one standard deviation above the mean).

Consistent with predictions, competence affected job suitability given long reading times, t(96) = 5.12, p < .001, but did not affect job suitability given short reading times, t(96) = 1.58, p > .11. In other words, the impact of competence on job suitability ratings was the higher the more attention participants had paid to target group membership information.

Discussion

The findings of this experiment show that mood-based expectancies regarding the group membership of a target person may determine the impact of individuating information on target judgments. Individuals in both positive and negative mood invested more effort in processing

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individuating information when their mood-based expectations regarding the target's group membership were disconfirmed (vs. confirmed). Specifically, in a competitive intergroup setting target judgments and target-related thoughts of participants in a positive mood were affected by individuating competence information when the successful target was an outgroup member, but not when it was an ingroup member. In contrast, in a negative mood, individuating information influenced these responses when the successful target was an ingroup member, but not when it was an outgroup member. Thus, results indicate more systematic processing of individuating information given mood-incongruent (vs. congruent) category information. Further in line with predictions, participants in both positive and negative mood spent more time reading group membership information when it was mood-incongruent (i.e., unexpected) rather than moodcongruent (i.e., expected).

Implications

Overall, the present research adds in a number of ways to the body of empirical findings on mood and intergroup evaluations as well as to existing accounts of mood and information processing. First of all, it adds to our scarce knowledge about the interplay of affect, categorical information, and individuating information in an intergroup context. Further, it provides an important amendment to existing research which found that individuating information has a weaker effect on intergroup target judgments by individuals in positive rather than negative mood [START_REF] Abele | Positive mood and in-group-out-group differentiation in a minimal group setting[END_REF]. Finally, it suggests that processing effort in regard to targets of different social categories is quite flexible in both positive and negative mood [START_REF] Bless | Mood and the use of general knowledge structures[END_REF][START_REF] Clore | Mood and Intergroup Evaluations 22 Affective feelings as feedback: Some cognitive consequences[END_REF][START_REF] Schwarz | Feelings as information: Informational and motivational functions of affective states[END_REF].

The predictions of this study were derived from the mood-congruent expectancies model (MEM, Ziegler, 2010) which holds that the processing strategy of individuals in both positive and negative mood is flexible (see also [START_REF] Martin | Mood as input: People have to interpret the motivational implications of their moods[END_REF], that is, more or less systematic depending on the (dis)confirmation of mood-based expectancies. We believe that this approach

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Mood and Intergroup Evaluations 16 complements (rather than opposes) existing accounts and findings on mood and information processing. On the one hand, the present approach refers specifically to circumstances under which processing motivation and ability due to non-mood factors are neither high nor low. In comparison, other accounts (e.g. [START_REF] Schwarz | Feelings as information: Informational and motivational functions of affective states[END_REF]; see also [START_REF] Bless | Mood and the use of general knowledge structures[END_REF][START_REF] Clore | Mood and Intergroup Evaluations 22 Affective feelings as feedback: Some cognitive consequences[END_REF] appear to be applicable mainly to circumstances of either high or low processing motivation / ability (cf. [START_REF] Forgas | Mood and judgment: The affect infusion model (AIM)[END_REF]. For instance, under conditions of low processing motivation, mood congruency effects or heuristic processing of categorical information in positive mood may dominate (e.g. [START_REF] Abele | Positive mood and in-group-out-group differentiation in a minimal group setting[END_REF][START_REF] Forgas | Us and them: Mood effects on intergroup[END_REF]. Under conditions of high processing motivation, mood and initial group membership information may not affect the impact of individuating information.

On the other hand, we certainly assent that a number of different mechanisms may also come into play under conditions of neither very high nor very low processing motivation (e.g. mood management: Clark & Isen, 1982;Schaller & Cialdini, 1990;[START_REF] Wegener | Mood management across affective states: The hedonic contingency hypothesis[END_REF] mood as input: [START_REF] Martin | Mood as input: People have to interpret the motivational implications of their moods[END_REF]. Still, the MEM suggests that mood-based expectancies may affect processing in positive and negative mood in symmetrical ways when initial information of clear valence confirms or disconfirms these expectancies (cf. Ziegler, 2010;Ziegler & Diehl, in press). Previous research may not have involved conditions which allowed for such effects to be observed. Future research may compare directly the circumstances proposed to be conducive to the mechanisms posited by the MEM and extant models on mood and processing (see also Ziegler, 2010, for further discussion of the MEM in relation to the MAI as well as the hedonic contingency view, [START_REF] Wegener | Mood management across affective states: The hedonic contingency hypothesis[END_REF].

The mood-congruent expectancies approach can be linked with the unimodel of human judgment [START_REF] Kruglanski | On the parameters of human judgment[END_REF]. Both share the perspective that judgmental parameters such as, for instance, information order and length can be more important determinants of the impact of information on social judgments than the type of information.

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Regarding mood effects on intergroup judgments this implies, for instance, that the impact of later appearing information may be higher when earlier information is mood-incongruent (vs. congruent) --regardless of whether early information concerns target group membership and late information concerns individuating attributes, or vice versa. Accordingly, further research may aim to show the reverse of the current findings. 8 That is, future research may provide individuals in different affective states with short initial individuating information followed by lengthier subsequent categorical information. To the extent that mood also entails expectations regarding

individuating information, such information may be more or less mood-congruent. Hence, given mood-incongruent (vs. mood-congruent) prior individuating information, later appearing lengthy categorical information may be processed more effortfully and impact target evaluations more strongly, (cf. [START_REF] Chun | The role of task demands and processing resources in the use of base-rate and individuating information[END_REF].

It may be asked whether mood-based expectancies also play a role when individuals receive individuating information about an ingroup or outgroup competitor with still unknown competition outcome. Indeed, it may be argued that this is the more common case. We believe this is a fruitful avenue for further research. Specifically, even in such circumstances, individuals may be provided with information about, for instance, the person who appears to be ahead in the competition (e.g. a newspaper article reporting who is voters' favorite). According to the MEM, the front-runner's group membership may also be more or less congruent with different moods.

Mood-based expectancies may also influence processing in non-competitive settings. For instance, it may be more congruent with positive (negative) mood when a participant learns that he or she is going to work with an ingroup (outgroup) member rather than an outgroup (ingroup) member [START_REF] Ruscher | Individuating processes in competition: Interpersonal versus intergroup[END_REF]. To the extent that the teamwork is of neither very high nor low importance, individuals may invest more effort in processing teammate-related information when the teammate's group membership is mood-incongruent rather than mood-congruent (see also [START_REF] Sekaquaptewa | Biased processing of stereotype-incongruency is greater for low than high status groups[END_REF].

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The present research may also be seen in relation to research on deservingness [START_REF] Feather | Judgments of deservingness: Studies in the psychology of justice and achievement[END_REF]. That is, target evaluations concerned the suitability of a competition winner whose success was more (high competence) or less (low competence) justified. Hence, future research may examine the role of mood for hiring decisions regarding ingroup and outgroup members [START_REF] Feather | Perceived legitimacy of a promotion decision in relation to deservingness, entitlement, and resentment in the context of affirmative action and performance[END_REF][START_REF] Lewis | Hiring you makes me look bad: Social-identity based reversals of the ingroup favoritism effect[END_REF]. Similarly, mood may affect reactions to decisions involving competition in institutional settings (Echebarria-Echabe & Guede, 2003; see also [START_REF] Boldry | Intergroup perception in naturally occurring groups of differential status: A social relations perspective[END_REF]. In both cases information provided to explain a decision may affect reactions differently, contingent on mood in combination with whether a positive outcome results for the ingroup (or an ingroup member) or the outgroup (or an outgroup member).

Finally, future research may also be devoted to the interplay of mood-based and categorybased expectations [START_REF] Bettencourt | Evaluations of ingroup and outgroup members: The role of category-based expectancy violation[END_REF]. While research guided by expectancy violation theory has examined the influence of expectancy violation on mood changes [START_REF] Biernat | Black sheep and expectancy violation: Integrating two models of social judgment[END_REF]), it appears that the influence of an existing affective state for the processing of more or less expectancy-violating information and resultant target evaluations has not yet been investigated. In this respect, perceivers may have prior information regarding, for instance, the skillfulness of an ingroup target's speech [START_REF] Bettencourt | Evaluations of ingroup and outgroup members: The role of category-based expectancy violation[END_REF][START_REF] Marques | The black sheep effect: Judgmental extremity towards ingroup members in inter-and intra-group situations[END_REF]. In positive (negative) mood, it should be more expectancy-congruent when prior information suggests that the speech is going to be skillful (unskillful) rather than unskillful (skillful).

Conclusion

The present findings are consistent with a symmetrical role of mood and category membership for the impact of individuating information on ingroup and outgroup target evaluations. Taken together with other recent research (Ziegler, 2010;Ziegler & Diehl, in press), they stress the importance of mood-based expectancies for social judgments in various domains.

Hence, we hope that future research regarding intergroup relations (Sherif, 1966), stereotyping [START_REF] Allport | The nature of prejudice[END_REF], and related areas may find it worthwhile to examine the effects of (dis)confirmed

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Mood and Intergroup Evaluations 28 interaction in either positive mood, F(1, 98) = 3.02, p = .085, or negative mood, F(1, 98) = 1.35, p = .25 (cf. Footnote 2). Within group analyses revealed a significant Mood x Competence interaction in ingroup conditions, F(1, 98) = 6.31, p < .02, which showed that the effect of competence on thought favorability was stronger given negative mood as compared to positive mood. In outgroup conditions, this interaction was not significant, F < 1.

Viewed together with the results on target evaluations (cf. Footnote 2), then, within group analyses once revealed an enhanced effect of competence given positive mood / outgroup member (vs. negative mood / outgroup member) and once given negative mood / ingroup member (vs. positive mood / ingroup member). Overall, then, the most parsimonious account of these results is that the effects of mood on the processing of individuating information regarding an ingroup or outgroup target are symmetric. 5 We also analyzed the overall amount of valenced thoughts (favorable and unfavorable combined). A competence main effect showed that high competence (M = 1.91; SD = 1.96) elicited more thoughts than low competence (M = 1.16; SD = 1.39), F(1, 98) = 4.88, p < .03 (all other ps > .3). In this regard, note that the overall number of thoughts is a poor measure of processing effort. That is, persuasion research has often shown that thought favorability may help to distinguish between conditions with high versus low processing effort when the overall number of thoughts does not (e.g. [START_REF] Petty | Communication and persuasion: Central and peripheral routes to attitude change[END_REF]).

6 Further analyses showed that, as predicted, reading times regarding the outgroup member tended to be longer given positive mood as compared to negative mood, F(1, 101) = 2.95, p = .09, and reading times regarding the ingroup member tended to be longer given negative mood as compared to positive mood F(1, 101) = 1.21, p = .28.

  competent. For example, in the high competence version of the article, one of the student's answers read "I am interested in politics and could well imagine to become engaged in party politics. I always take the time to keep informed about ongoing political events by reading newspapers." In contrast, in the low competence version one answer read "I am not really interested in politics and could not really imagine to become engaged in party politics. Yet, I do read newspapers. I always take the time to keep informed about ongoing sports events by reading A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Mood and Intergroup Evaluations 10 newspapers." Further pages were made up of the dependent measures, demographic questions, and an open-ended suspicion probe. The last page contained debriefing information. Participants then went to the experimenter, selected their reward, were thanked and dismissed.

  of competence, F(1, 98) = 22.92, p < .001. High competence led to more positive ratings (M = 4.79; SD = 1.23) than low competence (M = 3.24; SD = 1.24). This competence effect on job suitability was similar across the two mood-incongruent group membership conditions (F < 1 for the condition by competence interaction). In comparison, in mood-congruent conditions the effect of competence was less reliable, F(1, 98) = 3.52, p = .064 (high competence: M = 4.35; SD = low competence: M = 3.74; SD = 1.14). 2 Further, in line with the present hypotheses, planned comparisons within each combination of mood and group membership were conducted.They showed that high competence led to higher suitability ratings than low competence given positive mood / outgroup target (high competence: M = 4.96; SD = 0.93; low competence: M = 3.25; SD = 1.18), t(98) = 3.66, p < .001, and given negative mood / ingroup target (high: M = 4.63; SD = 1.48; low: M = 3.23; SD = 1.35), t(98) = 3.11, p < .003. In the case of positive mood / ingroup target, the effect was less reliable (high: M = 4.62; SD = 1.02; low: M = 3.73; SD = 1.15), t(98) = 1.89, p = .061. No difference was found given negative mood / outgroup target (high: M = 4.11; SD = 1.13; low: M = 3.75; SD = 1.18), t < 1.3

  , bottom panel) revealed a competence main effect, F(1, 98) = 15.55, p < .001. High competence (M = 1.05; SD = 2.00) led to more favorable thoughts than low competence (M = -0.32; SD = 1.49). Further, the ANOVA revealed the predicted threeway interaction, F(1, 98) = 4.22, p < .05. As expected, in mood-incongruent conditions, only the competence effect was significant, F(1, 98) = 18.28, p < .001. High competence led to more favorable thoughts (M = 1.55; SD = 2.15) than low competence (M = -0.52; SD = 1.26). In contrast, thought valence was unaffected by competence in mood-congruent conditions (p > .18).4 Further, planned comparisons within each combination of mood and group membership showed that high competence led to more favorable thoughts than low competence given positive mood / outgroup target (high: M = 1.29; SD = 1.86; low: M = -0.42; SD = 1.31), t(98) = 2.46, p < .02, and given negative mood / ingroup target (high: M = 1.80; SD = 2.43; low: M = -0.62; SD = 1.26), t(98) = 3.62, p < .001. No difference was found given positive mood / ingroup target (high: M = 0.31; SD = 1.97; low: M = 0.31; SD = 1.93), t < 1. In the case of negative mood / outgroup target, the competence effect was less reliable (high: M = 0.86; SD = 1.66; low: M = -0.58; SD = ), t(98) = 1.87, p = .064.5

Figure 1 .

 1 Figure caption

A similar analysis on thought valence also showed that the three-way interaction was no longer significant, t(96) = -1,67, p = .10.

In this respect, note that research by[START_REF] Abele | Positive mood and in-group-out-group differentiation in a minimal group setting[END_REF] already showed that categorical information has a stronger impact on intergroup judgments than individuating information (given low processing motivation). However, the current approach suggests a different mechanism given specific circumstances.

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Theories of mood and cognition: A user's guidebook (pp. 177-210). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

Ziegler, R., (2010). Mood, source characteristics, and message processing: A moodcongruent expectancies approach.

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Mood and Intergroup Evaluations 27 Footnotes 1 We conceive of attention as an indirect index of surprise. That is, research on surprise has established that focusing of attention on the surprising event is a manifestation of surprise at the behavioural level [START_REF] Schützwohl | Surprise and schema strength[END_REF]. Different from asking individuals for their subjective experience of surprise (Ziegler, 2010) such an indirect measure allows to unobtrusively ascertain surprise at the moment in time when mood-(in)congruent information is presented to individuals.

2 Note that this decomposition is most in line with the current mood and group membership congruence perspective. However, it might be argued that the decomposition should look at interactions either within mood conditions or within group conditions. Within mood analyses did not reveal a significant Group Membership x Competence interaction in either positive mood, F(1, 98) = 1.57, p = .21, or negative mood, F(1, 98) = 2.58, p = .11. Within group analyses revealed a significant Mood x Competence interaction in outgroup conditions, F(1, 98) = 4.19, p < .05, which showed that the effect of competence on target ratings was stronger given positive mood as compared to negative mood. In ingroup conditions, this interaction was not significant, F < 1 (but see also Footnote 4).

3 We also measured participants' identification with Tuebingen University through ratings on seven items (e.g. "It means a lot to me to be a student of Tuebingen University"; alpha = .92).

Identification was unaffected by the manipulated independent variables (all ps > .15; overall M = 4.13, SD = 1.44). A regression analysis on job suitability with identification (centered), mood, group membership, competence, and all products as predictors showed that the three-way interaction remained significant (for the four-way interaction: t < 1). Hence, the role of group membership for the effect of mood on the processing of individuating information did not depend on identification with the university.


Christopher R Engelhardt

Bruce D Bartholow
email: bartholowb@missouri.edu

Geoffrey T Kerr

Brad J Bushman

Violent games and desensitization 1 Running Head: VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES AND DESENSITIZATION This is Your Brain on Violent Video Games: Neural Desensitization to Violence Predicts Increased Aggression Following Violent Video Game Exposure

Keywords: Violent video games, Aggression, Desensitization, Event-related potentials, Media Violence

Previous research has shown that media violence exposure can cause desensitization to violence, which in theory can increase aggression. However, no study to date has demonstrated this association. In the present experiment, participants played a violent or nonviolent video game, viewed violent and nonviolent photos while their brain activity was measured, and then gave an ostensible opponent unpleasant noise blasts. Participants low in previous exposure to video game violence who played a violent (relative to a nonviolent) game showed a reduction in the P3 component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) to violent images (indicating physiological desensitization), and this brain response mediated the effect of video game content on subsequent aggressive behavior. These data provide the first experimental evidence linking violence desensitization with increased aggression, and show that a neural marker of this process can at least partially account for the causal link between violent game exposure and aggression. (

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Violent games and desensitization 3 "The daily spectacle of atrocious acts has stifled all feeling of pity in the hearts of men. When every hour we see or hear of an act of dreadful cruelty we lose all feeling of humanity."

-Taylor Caldwell, A Pillar of Iron People today are bombarded by scenes of violence in the mass media. All forms of media have become more graphic, realistic, and violent over time (see [START_REF] Bushman | Media violence and the American public: Scientific facts versus media misinformation[END_REF], but this is especially true for video games. In the past, violent video games featured cartoonish characters and stylized blood and gore. Today, the characters, blood, and gore are extremely realistic. One possible consequence of chronic exposure to violence in the media is that people may become desensitized to it.

Desensitization theory proposes that repeated exposure to violence results in habituation of the initially negative cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses people experience when they see blood and gore (see Funk, Bechtoldt-Baldacci, Pasold, & Baumgartner, 2004;Rule & Ferguson, 1986). This theory is supported by research showing that violent media exposure is associated with decreased cardiovascular (e.g., [START_REF] Carnagey | The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violence[END_REF]Linz, Donnerstein, & Adams, 1989), electrodermal (e.g., Cline, Croft, & Courrier, 1973), neural [START_REF] Bartholow | Chronic violent video game exposure and desensitization to violence: Behavioral and event-related brain potential data[END_REF], and empathic responses (e.g., Fanti, Vanman, Henrich, & Avraamides, 2009) during depictions of real violence.

Desensitization to violent media, in turn, has been theoretically linked to increases in aggressive behavior (see Smith & Donnerstein, 1998). Habitual exposure to violent media may reduce aggressive inhibitions (see Huesmann & Kirwil, 2007) and empathy for the pain and suffering of others (see Mullin & Linz, 1995), and weaken typical aversions to violence

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Violent games and desensitization 4 (see [START_REF] Cantor | Mommy, I'm scared: How TV and movies frighten children and what we can do to protect them[END_REF]Funk et al., 2004), all of which should increase the likelihood of aggressive responses.

However, despite the intuitive appeal of desensitization as a plausible mechanism for increases in aggression, to date no study has demonstrated this link. That is, no previous research has specifically tested whether desensitization following media violence exposure mediates the well-known link between media violence exposure and aggression. This experiment fills this important gap in the literature.

Desensitization to media violence is believed to take a long time, presumably occurring over numerous repeated exposures (see Huesmann, Titus, Podolski, & Eron, 2003;Smith & Donnerstein, 1998). However, experimental research indicates that desensitization can occur following relatively brief exposures. For example, one study found that participants who played a violent video game for just 20 min showed reduced cardiovascular and electrodermal responses to subsequent depictions of real violence, compared with participants who had played a nonviolent game [START_REF] Carnagey | The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violence[END_REF]; also see Fanti et al., 2009;Linz et al., 1989;Mullin & Linz, 1995;Strenziok et al., in press).

In the present experiment, participants varying in levels of previous violent video game exposure played either a violent or nonviolent video game in the lab. Acute desensitization following game play was determined using the amplitude of the P300 (P3) component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) elicited by photos depicting real violence, and aggression was measured via levels of unpleasant noise blasts participants gave an ostensible opponent.

P3 amplitude provides a useful measure of desensitization to violence in the present

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Violent games and desensitization 5 NE) system when motivationally-relevant stimuli are encountered. According to this model, the more a stimulus engages a relevant motivational system the stronger the LC-NE response will be and, thus, the larger the P3. Consistent with this idea, research shows that the P3 is sensitive to the arousal properties of stimuli that activate the aversive motivational system (Delplanque, Silvert, Hot, Rigoulot, & Sequeira, 2006;Hajcak, Weinberg, MacNamara, & Foti, in press). Thus, a smaller P3 response to violent images indicates weaker activation of aversive motivation (and relevant decision-making processes related to withdrawal behavior).

Based on these ideas, we predicted that participants randomly assigned to play a violent video game would show smaller P3 amplitudes to violent images compared to participants assigned to play a nonviolent game. Following from this prediction, and given that aversive/withdrawal motivation is incompatible with aggression (see Harmon-Jones, 2003) we also predicted that participants who play a violent (relative to a nonviolent) game would subsequently behave more aggressively. Finally, we predicted that the P3 elicited by violent pictures would negatively predict aggressive behavior (see [START_REF] Bartholow | Chronic violent video game exposure and desensitization to violence: Behavioral and event-related brain potential data[END_REF], and would mediate the relationship between violent game exposure and aggressive behavior.

Method

Participants

Participants were selected from a pool of over 2,000 undergraduates who completed a video game usage questionnaire as part of a battery of measures administered in a webbased survey. Specifically, participants listed their five favorite video games, indicated the number of hours they played each game in an average week, and then rated the violence of their content and graphics (1=not at all to 7=extremely). Previous exposure to violent video

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Violent games and desensitization 6 games was measured by summing the contents and graphics ratings for each game, multiplying the sum by the number of hours that game was played each week, and then averaging across the five games (see [START_REF] Anderson | Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life[END_REF]; Cronbach α = .84). We

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Violent games and desensitization 7 neutral or violent. Images were displayed for 1 sec each and separated by 1 sec intervals.

Participants were told to think about their reactions to the images.

Following picture viewing, participants completed a competitive reaction time task (Taylor, 1967), a reliable and valid laboratory measure of aggression that has been used for decades (e.g., Giancola & Zeichner, 1995). Participants were told that they and an "opponent" (actually, there was no opponent; all events were controlled by a computer)

would have to press a button as fast as possible on each of 25 trials, and that whoever was slower would receive a blast of white noise (sounds like radio static) through headphones.

Prior to each trial, participants set the level of noise their "opponent" would receive, ranging from 60 dB (Level 1) to 105 dB (Level 10, approximately the same volume as a fire alarm).

A nonaggressive no-noise option (Level 0) also was provided. Participants also controlled how long their "opponent" suffered by setting the noise duration, from 0 to 2.5 sec. Prior to the competition, participants experienced sample noise blasts to ensure they knew the noise was indeed unpleasant. The "opponent" set random noise levels throughout the task.

Basically, within the ethical limits of the laboratory, participants controlled a weapon that could be used to blast their opponent with noxious noise. Finally, participants were probed for suspicion, debriefed and dismissed.

Results

Data from 3 participants were discarded due to a high proportion of EEG artifacts.

Three other participants were discarded because they did not believe they had a real opponent in the competitive reaction time task. Thus, analyses were based on data from 64 participants (32 who played a violent game). Although men were more aggressive than women, violent video game content had a similar effect on men and women. Thus, the data from men and women were combined.

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Violent games and desensitization 8

Aggression

To create a more reliable measure of aggression, noise intensity and duration levels from the competitive reaction time task were standardized and summed. We focused on noise levels set on the first trial in order to assess unprovoked aggression. Trial 1 represents unprovoked aggression because participants set those levels prior to receiving any noise blasts from their opponent. After Trial 1, levels converged on what participants believed their opponent had done (i.e., tit-for-tat responding), consistent with findings confirming the importance of reciprocation norms in determining aggressive behavior [START_REF] Axelrod | The evolution of cooperation[END_REF].

Data were analyzed using a 2 (nonviolent vs. violent video game content) x 2 (low vs. high previous exposure to violent video games) factorial ANOVA. As expected, participants who played a violent game were more aggressive than those who played a nonviolent game, Ms=0.58 and -0.59, respectively, F(1,60)=7.7, p<.01, d=0.70. This effect was similar in magnitude for participants low and high in previous violent video game exposure, ds=0.67 and 0.72, respectively. No other effects were significant.

Desensitization to Violence

Initial inspection of the waveforms confirmed that the P3 elicited by violent images was largest at parietal (P3, Pz, P4) electrode sites. Therefore, the P3 was measured as the average voltage 300-800 ms post-stimulus at parietal electrodes. These data were analyzed using a 2 (nonviolent vs. violent video game content) x 2 (low vs. high previous exposure to violent video games) factorial ANOVA. Violent images elicited smaller P3s among participants high in previous violent video game exposure than among those low in previous exposure, Ms=8.4 and 13.6 µV, respectively, F(1,60)=25.5, p<.001, d=1.30, consistent with previous research [START_REF] Bartholow | Chronic violent video game exposure and desensitization to violence: Behavioral and event-related brain potential data[END_REF]. This main effect was qualified by a significant

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Violent games and desensitization 9 interaction between video game content and previous violent video game exposure, F(1,60)=5.3, p=.025 (see Figure 1). Follow-up contrasts showed that participants low in previous violent game exposure who played a violent game in the lab had smaller P3 amplitudes to violent images than did their peers who played a nonviolent game, Ms=11.9

and 15.4 µV, respectively, t(30) =2.3, p=.02, d=0.85. Participants high in previous violent game exposure had small P3 amplitudes to violent images regardless of whether they played a violent or nonviolent game in the lab, Ms=9.1 and 7.8 µV, respectively, t(32) =-0.88, p=.38, d=0.32.

Neural Desensitization Mediates the Effect of Violent Video Games on Aggression

Given that video game content affected the P3 to violent images for individuals low but not high in previous violent video game exposure, we tested the hypothesis that neural desensitization to violence would mediate the effect of video game content on aggression among low-exposure participants. This hypothesis was tested using the method for singlemediator models (see MacKinnon & Fairchild, 2009) and bootstrapping to assess the magnitude of the indirect effect (see Shrout & Bolger, 2002). As illustrated in Figure 2, the P3 elicited by violent images negatively predicted aggression (i.e., smaller P3s predicted more aggression). Critically, P3s elicited by violent images remained a significant predictor of aggression when video game condition was included as a predictor in the regression model, but the direct effect of video game condition was reduced considerably. The 95% confidence interval (bias-corrected and accelerated) for the indirect effect did not include zero (0.13-1.84), indicating significant mediation. 3

Discussion

For many years, theorists have posited that desensitization to violence should increase the likelihood of aggressive behavior. Although numerous reports have shown that

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Violent games and desensitization 10 chronic (e.g., [START_REF] Bartholow | Chronic violent video game exposure and desensitization to violence: Behavioral and event-related brain potential data[END_REF][START_REF] Cline | Desensitization of children to television violence[END_REF] and even short-term exposure to media violence (e.g., [START_REF] Carnagey | The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violence[END_REF]Fanti et al., 2009) The fact that video game exposure did not affect the P3 amplitudes of high exposure participants is interesting, and suggests a number of possibilities. First, it could be that these individuals are already so desensitized that an acute exposure to violent media was insufficient to bring about further changes in their neural responses to violence (i.e., a floor effect). Second, it could be that some unmeasured factor causes both an affinity for violent media and a reduced P3 response to violent imagery in violent gamers. In either case, the fact that playing a violent video game increased aggression for both low-and high-exposure participants, but the P3 response to violence was reduced for high-exposure participants regardless of the game they played, suggests that additional mechanisms not measured here are important to consider.

  context. Recent theory (Nieuwenhuis, Aston-Jones, & Cohen, 2005) links P3 amplitude with evaluative decision-making processes engaged by the locus-coeruleus norepinephrine (LC-A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T

  randomly selected 35 individuals scoring above the 75 th percentile and 35 individuals scoring below the 25 th percentile for the present experiment (representing high and low previous exposure groups, respectively). Participants were 18-22 years old (46% female), were predominantly right-handed, and had normal or corrected-to-normal vision. Procedure Participants were told that the study concerned the effects of video games on visual perception and reaction time. After participants gave their consent, the researcher applied scalp electrodes for electroencephalogram (EEG) recording. 1 Next, participants were randomly assigned to play either a nonviolent or violent video game for 25 min. The violent games were Call of Duty: Finest Hour, Hitman: Contracts, Killzone, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The nonviolent games were Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, MVP Baseball 2004, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, and Sonic Plus Mega Collection. All games were pre-tested to ensure relative equivalence on how enjoyable, arousing, and frustrating they were. All games were played on a Playstation2 console system connected to a 19" (48.3 cm) television. Next, participants viewed a series of neutral (e.g., a man on a bicycle) and violent (e.g., a man holding a gun in another man's mouth) pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS; Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 2001). 2 Images were presented in 2 blocks of 48 trials, with a 2 min rest period between blocks. Each trial contained 4 "context" images (always neutral) and 1 "target" image, shown in position 3, 4 or 5, which was either A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T

  Future research should continue to investigate mediators of media violence effects on aggressive behavior, especially among individuals who are habitually exposed to violent media.In summary, the present research is the first to demonstrate that acute desensitization to violence can account for the causal effect of violent video game exposure on aggression. In short, these data indicate that a brain on media violence provides one

  can lead to desensitization, no previous research has shown that acute desensitization to violence can account for changes in aggression. The current results are the first to demonstrate this link experimentally. That is, at least for individuals whose prior exposure to video game violence was low, playing a violent video game caused a reduction in the brain's response to depictions of real-life violence, and this reduction, in turn, predicted an increase in aggression. This finding also suggests that individual differences in self-reported habitual exposure to violent games are tapping into real differences in the gaming experience.

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Violent games and desensitization 13 Delplanque, S., Silvert, L., Hot, P., Rigoulot, S., & Sequeira, H. (2006). Arousal and valence effects on event-related P3a and P3b during emotional categorization. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 60, 315-322. Fanti, K. A., Vanman, E., Henrich, C. C., & Avraamides, M. N. (2009). Desensitization to media violence over a short period of time. Aggressive Behavior, 35, 179-187. Funk, J. B., Bechtoldt-Baldacci, H., Pasold, T., & Baumgartner, J. (2004). Violence exposure in real-life, video games, television, movies, and the internet: Is there desensitization? Journal of Adolescence, 27, 23-39. Geen, R. G. (1990). Human aggression. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

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Violent games and desensitization 16 Footnotes 1. EEG was recorded from 28 electrodes fixed in an electrode cap (Electro-cap International, Eaton, OH) at standard scalp locations, referenced online to the right mastoid (an average mastoid reference was derived offline). EEG was sampled at 250 Hz (online filtered at 0.05 -30 Hz) using a Neuroscan Synamps2 system. Stimulus-locked ERP epochs of 1000ms were derived offline (100ms pre-stimulus baseline). Impedance was kept below 10 kΩ. Ocular artifacts (blinks) were removed from the EEG using a regressionbased procedure (Semlitsch, Anderer, Schuster, & Presslich, 1986). Trials containing voltage deflections of ±75 microvolts (µV) after ocular artifact removal were rejected prior to averaging according to participant, electrode, and stimulus conditions.

2. Additional images unrelated to the goals of this study also were included, but will not be discussed because they are irrelevant to testing current hypotheses. The identification numbers (from the IAPS manual; Lang et al., 2001) for all of the images used here were 5875, 7493, 2749, 5410, 2840, 2850, 2870, 2880, 8465, 9210, 5500, 7000, 7002, 7009, 7010, 7025, 7030, 7035, 7040, 7080, 7090, 7140, 7217, 7224, 7050, 3500, 3530, 6313, 6350, 6540, 3170, 6415, 9570, 9800, and 9910. 3. It is possible that the results of the mediational model are confounded with gender (i.e., females are generally lower in previous exposure to violent games than males). However, because we endeavored to include similar numbers of men and women in the low-and high-exposure groups, gender was fairly evenly distributed within the low-exposure group (14 men; 17 women). To more definitively test the possibility of a gender confound, the mediation models were re-run with gender included. Results of these analyses showed no main effects or interactions involving gender (all ps > .26). Also, although it is well

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Violent games and desensitization 17 documented that men are more aggressive than women on average (Geen, 1990), as was the case here, the capacity for violent video games to differentially affect aggressive behavior for men and women seems inconsistent, with some studies finding larger effects for men than women [START_REF] Bartholow | Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior: Potential sex differences[END_REF], and other studies finding no such gender differences (e.g., Anderson & Dill, 2000, Study 2).

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Violent games and desensitization 18


Kai Epstude
email: k.epstude@rug.nl

Jens Förster

How level of construal guides the interpretation of ambiguous interpersonal situations

Keywords: construal level, global and local thinking, love, situational inferences

Interpreting ambiguous situations is a task individuals face on a daily basis. In romantic contexts the accurate interpretation of these situations is of particular importance. In the present set of studies we investigated how level of construal guides individual perception in these cases. When a high level of construal was induced participants likely interpreted a given interpersonal situation as the start or the continuation of a long lasting relationship. When a low level of construal was induced the same situations were more likely interpreted as leading to a one-night stand (in a dating situation) or involving little chance of a common future for both actors (in a break-up situation). In sum, the present studies demonstrate construal level to be a crucial determinant of the interpretation of ambiguous romantic situations. We discuss these findings in relation to the functional independence of love and sex, level of construal, and social perception.

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A look, a smile, a subtle gesture. These simple cues are oftentimes the only hint individuals have when they start to date a person. Many of us would be happy to obtain some kind of "accurate" interpretation of what the situation is about. The cues are subtle and ambiguous. Making the wrong move at the wrong time could lead to disaster. Of course one could also see the setting as a kind of trial and error situation with an exciting outcome. Whatever view you prefer it is clear that romantic situations can contain a lot of ambiguity that needs to be dealt with by individuals, or in a other words is a very complex decision situation (e.g. [START_REF] Chapdelaine | Matchmaker, matchmaker, can you make me a match? Predicting liking between two unacquainted persons[END_REF][START_REF] Eastwick | Sex differences in mate preferences revisited: Do people know what they initially desire in a romantic partner[END_REF]Hatfield & Rapson, 2005;Hatfield & Sprecher, 1986).

Interpreting ambiguous behaviors is guided by preexisting information we have about the other person [START_REF] Uleman | People as flexible interpreters: Evidence and issues from spontaneous trait inference[END_REF], activated cognitive concepts [START_REF] Srull | The role of category accessibility in the interpretation of information about persons: Some determinants and implications[END_REF]Higgins Rholes & Jones, 1979), and our own goals in a situation (Mc Culloch, Ferguson, Kawada, & Bargh, 2008). In determining whether a dating context leads to a long lasting love story or a one-time sexual encounter the way individuals mentally represent the situation might play a crucial role. [START_REF] Diamond | What does sexual orientation orient? A biobehavioral model distinguishing romantic love and sexual desire[END_REF][START_REF] Diamond | Emerging perspectives on distinctions between romantic love and sexual desire[END_REF] suggested that love and sex are functionally independent. She cites evidence from various areas of psychology and physiology indicating that both concepts activate very different mental and bodily processes.

Recent research showed distinct effects on perceptual and conceptual attention [START_REF] Förster | How love and sex can influence recognition of faces and words: A processing model account[END_REF]Förster, Epstude, & Özelsel, 2009;Förster, Özelsel, & Epstude, 2010).

Love broadened participants' perceptual scope, while sex narrowed it down. Moreover love led to increased performance on creativity tasks (that usually profit from activation of broad categories) while sex improved performance on analytical tasks (that profit from

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Ambiguous situations and level of construal 4 activation of narrow categories; Förster et al, 2009). Consistent with recent theorizing [START_REF] Förster | GLOMOsys: A Systems Account of Global versus Local Processing[END_REF][START_REF] Förster | How love and sex can influence recognition of faces and words: A processing model account[END_REF] it was suggested that perceptual scope is strongly linked to conceptual scope of information processing [START_REF] Förster | GLOMOsys: A Systems Account of Global versus Local Processing[END_REF] and results

showed that the perceptual style elicited by priming love or sex mediated effects on higher order conceptual tasks (Förster et al., 2009[START_REF] Förster | GLOMOsys: A Systems Account of Global versus Local Processing[END_REF].

Furthermore, one may relate love versus sex to different construal levels and psychological distance [START_REF] Liberman | The psychology of transcending the here and now[END_REF][START_REF] Trope | Temporal construal[END_REF][START_REF] Förster | How love and sex can influence recognition of faces and words: A processing model account[END_REF].

While love is an abstract concept generally associated with a long-term temporal perspective (Aron & Aron, 1980), sex is relevant in the here and now. Consistently, in

Förster and colleagues' studies (2010) thoughts related to distant future events mediated the effects of love versus sex on conceptual scope. It seems that because people usually think about love in high-level construals and they think about sex in low-level construals, such associations are stored in memory and influence ways of processing information out of participants' awareness. Is there a possibility of a bidirectional link?

The assumed links inspired us to hypothesize that in an ambiguous dating context the activation of a high level of construal should lead to stronger tendency to interpret the situation in terms of love, than in terms of a sex. In contrast, activation of a low level of construal should lead to the opposite interpretation.

Overview of the studies

Across three studies we manipulated level of construal; such priming phase was followed by the evaluation of an ambiguous dating situation (Study 1 and 2) or a complex break-up scenario (Study 3).

Study 1

Participants and design. Forty-six students (27 females) participated in a 2 level of construal (between: high, low) X 2 interpretation (within: love, sex) design.

Procedure. The first part of the study consisted of various vignettes that were based on the materials used by Freitas, Liberman, and Trope (2004). Participants were presented with six vignettes unrelated to dating, love, or sex (e.g. Henk plans to take driving lessons); while half of the participants had to write down how the actor does something (low construal level), the other half had to write down why the actor does is (high construal level). Next, participants received another vignette describing how a male and female meet each other at a bar, and obviously find each other attractive. The story stopped at the point at which the male brings the female to the doorstep of her home.

Participants were asked to complete the story. After that participants rated on different dimensions what likely happened using scales ranging from 1 (not at all) to 7 (very much). Scales included two items directly asking whether the couple starts a serious relationship (e.g. Do you think they are in love with each other?), and whether it was a one-night stand (e.g. Do you think it was a one-night stand?). In addition we asked whether the two might still be in contact after one year (anchored at 1 = no contact at all, and 7 = a lot of contact). Furthermore we measured participants' mood with a single item (i.e. How do you feel right now?; 1 = very bad) to 7 = very good).

Results and discussion

We summarized the two items measuring love (r=. The results served as first indication that level of construal indeed guides our perception of ambiguous interpersonal situations. Yet, the manipulation we used (i.e. how vs. why descriptions of events) has previously also been used in relation to subjective reports of happiness [START_REF] Strack | Happiness and reminiscing: The role of time perspective, affect, and mode of thinking[END_REF]. We did not find any differences in terms of affect in the present study. However, in order to avoid this potential confound a second study was conducted using a different priming manipulation.

Study 2

In this conceptual replication, participants were primed with a different task in which they had to either infer an exemplar from a given category, or a category from a given exemplar (low vs. high level of construal; Fujita, Trope, Liberman, & Levin-Sagi, 2006).

Method

Participants and design. Fifty-seven (52 females) psychology students participated, the design compared 2 level of construal (between: high, low) with 2 interpretation (within: love, sex).

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Procedure. Adapting a version of a priming task used by Fujita et al. (2006), participants had to complete 40 sentences of the following structure "The Empire state building is an example of … ". Having to infer a higher order category from a given exemplar should prime a high-level of construal. In the low-level construal condition materials consisted of content wise similar sentences that differed in structure. Here participants had to deduct an example from a given category, such as "An example for a skyscraper is…". The remainder of the experiment was identical to Study 1.

Results and discussion

We

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Thus far our studies focused on an ambiguous dating context. Our model of the information processing consequences of love and sex is not limited to such contexts.

Ambiguity in terms of perceptions of relationship quality (Gagne & Lydon, 2001) or relationship expectancies [START_REF] Downey | The self-fulfilling prophecy in close relationships[END_REF] can also occur when relationships end. The present study examines whether level of construal also guides interpretations of ambiguous break-up situations. More specifically, we presented a scenario in which a couple had broken up and meets again at a party -we asked whether they would restart their relationship or whether they would stay single. We expect high-level construals to be linked to love, while low-level construals should lead participants to assume the dissolution to be final.

Such study can also distinguish between psychological distance and level of construal driving effects in the former studies. It is possible that high level of construal elicited thoughts about distal events and that this transfers the current situation to the distant future. Since love, involving wishes of "foreverness" (Förster, et al., 2009) is more related to the distance than sexual desire participants may have interpreted the situation as love. If distance is the mechanism, then in a break-up scenario, people primed with high level construals should think that this situation would stay for a longer time. If however, high level construals are more directly linked to love, then people would interpret the situation as a renewal of love.

Method

Participants and design: Thirty-nine students (30 females) participated in the study in exchange for course credits. A 2(level of construal: high, low) x 2

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(interpretation: love, final dissolution) mixed-model design with interpretation as a within-factor was realized.

Procedure: Participants completed the same priming manipulation as in Study 2.

Next, participants read a scenario involving a couple that has a while ago ended their relationship. The relationship was described as almost perfect and lasting throughout the college years. However, both actors grew increasingly worried that they become settled too early. So they split and both had various short-term relationships in the meantime.

Nevertheless, once in a while they thought about their previous partner, without ever committing it. Participants read that they accidentally meet at a party of a friend for the first time since their split-up. After that participants rated on different dimensions what likely happened using scales ranging from 1 (not at all) to 7 (very much). Dependent measures included two questions concerning a potential revival of their relationship (e.g.

Are they still in love?), and two questions about a definite dissolution of the relationship (e.g. Do they stop having contact?). Participants also indicated their current mood state (as in Studies 1 and 2). Moreover, we measured whether participants thought that the ambiguity in the relation between the two actors would persist on a scale from 1(not likely) to 7 (very likely).

Results and discussion.

We calculated one mean summarizing the two love items (r=.72), and one mean summarizing the two dissolution items (r=.61). As predicted, participants primed with a low construal level expected the evening to result in the final dissolution (M=4.34, .26. Including mood as a covariate led to the same interaction as the only significant effect, F(1,37)=13.17, p<.001, η p 2 = .28. Importantly, level of construal did not influence whether participants perceived the ambiguity of the relationship to persist, t<1. This last result points to the fact that both groups of participant expect the situation to be solved, ruling out the assumption that a high level of construal leads participants to believe that any kind of situation will last for a long time.

SD=1

Final Remarks

In a set of three studies we demonstrated the relevance of construal level in the domain of interpreting ambiguous romantic situations. A high level of construal constantly led participants to interpret a relatively open situation between a male and a female as the start or the continuation of a love story. A low level of construal led participants to interpret the dating situation as a one-night stand and in an ambiguous break-up situation as a final dissolution.

Previously Förster et al. (2009[START_REF] Förster | GLOMOsys: A Systems Account of Global versus Local Processing[END_REF] demonstrated that thinking about love versus sex has distinct consequences individual information processing. The present set of studies shows that the reverse link also works. Not only does love prime a high level of construal, but a high level of construal also seems to increase the likelihood that individuals "see" love in an ambiguous interpersonal situation. The activation of sex does lead to activation of a low level of construal, while a low level of construal also leads to the interpretation of the same situation as leading to a one-night stand. Importantly

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Studies 1 and 2 rely on a match between the two concepts love and sex and the romantic scenario. Both concepts are applicable to the situation. Much like in earlier research on the applicability of primes in person perception (Higgins, 1989) we assume that an activated information processing style only exerts influence within a matching situation.

The ambiguity of the situation we provided might be a crucial factor determining the effect. This becomes apparent in Study 3. Here, love is still a relevant concept while the definite end of the relationship is the opposite outcome of the situation.

Our studies can be viewed as a first hint that construal level does not only guide decision making [START_REF] Trope | Temporal construal[END_REF][START_REF] Förster | How love and sex can influence recognition of faces and words: A processing model account[END_REF] but can be viewed as an important determinant of social perception. Much like previous research on accessibility effects (e.g. [START_REF] Srull | The role of category accessibility in the interpretation of information about persons: Some determinants and implications[END_REF]) level of construal guides our perception in fundamental ways. It is an important enterprise to explore these effects beyond the context used in our studies and to establish boundary conditions.

It is also possible that similar processes operate, when people make inferences about themselves in interpersonal situations, affecting their feelings. The current scenarios do not involve the self, but two unfamiliar others. Would our emotions be affected by perceptual and conceptual scope? Would we think that our date loves us when we happen to think of high-level construals? Would we ourselves fall in love, when thinking abstractly? Our research may inspire many more research questions examining interactions between cognitive and perceptual styles and feelings.

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Förster, J., Epstude, K, & Özelsel, A. (2009).