Key Researcher
o Dolf Zillmann
o Born 1935
o Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania (1969-71)
o Associate Professor at Indiana University (1971-1988)
o Professor and Senior Associate Dean at the University of Alabama
(1989-2001) (Bryant, Roskos-Ewoldsen, & Cantor, 2003)
o Fled to Germany from the Russians during WWII with his mother and sister,
so homeschooling and self-teaching was essential during this time
Became interested in communication after seeing a TV clip at a
German Café (Bryant, Roskos-Ewoldsen, & Cantor, 2003)
o Originally went to school in Ulm, Germany to become an architect
o Later proved to be beneficial during his Communication research
because he liked to construct and manipulate his own experimental
stimuli
One of his professors from Ulm allegedly approached one of the
most powerful media moguls in Germany and pitched
Zillmann’s work to him, and Zillmann was subsequently hired
as an internal consultant (Bryant, Roskos-Ewoldsen, & Cantor,
2003)
o Began his doctoral study in psychology at University of Wisconsin
o Later received a fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania where he
transferred to continue his doctoral education
Origins
o Festinger’s Selective Exposure Theory
o When you consume media that challenges your existing attitude
towards something, you develop dissonance, or a state of emotional
tension
o As such, purposely avoiding exposure to these counter-attitudinal
messages prevents the distressing feeling of a dissonant mental state
(Zillman & Bryant, 1985)
 Selective Exposure is a way to reduce cognitive dissonance
o Therefore, it is assumed that people attend to persuasive messages that
reinforce and support their attitudes  This is selective exposure
 People want to believe their attitude is correct, so they actively
seek out messages that support their beliefs
 For example, after buying an expensive car you only look at
data and research that backs up your decision to purchase it and
avoid attending to negative reviews. This reduces cognitive
dissonance that occurs between the stress of spending money
and the desire to own a new car because it reinforces your
decision and positive attitude toward the car. (Zillman &
Bryant, 1985)
o Zillmann’s Mood Management Theory
o Does not believe dissonance-related selective exposure exists, did not
find Festinger’s data to be falsifiable because it says people sometimes
seek out discrepant information in order to actively avoid it (Zillman
& Bryant, 1985)
o Includes all moods, not just the feeling of dissonance
o Applied to all forms of media, not just persuasive messages
o States that people want to manage their moods and will look for ways
to minimize bad moods and maximize good moods
Central Predictions
o Mood Management theory states that the consumption of messages, entertaining
messages in particular - is capable of altering prevailing mood states, and that the
selection of specific messages for consumption often serves the regulation of
mood states
o In essence, the theory explains for why and how people alter what they see, hear,
eat, etc. to make themselves be in a better mood.
o It relies on the hedonistic premise that
o Individuals try to rid themselves of bad moods, or at least, to diminish the
intensity of such moods
o AND
o Individuals strive to perpetuate good moods and seek to maintain the
intensity of these moods
o Not only do people manage their moods on purpose, but also the theory allows for
intuitive or “gut reactions”. Many people will simply ‘feel like doing this or that”
without any consideration to why.
o EXAMPLE  They may eat chocolate after being heart broken without
o knowing why they do so
Zillmann, D. (1988a). Mood management through communication choices. American
Behavioral Scientist, 31 (3), 327-341.
Media Effects #1:
o http://movieclips.com/LXYZ-bring-it-on-movie-mix-tape-dancing/
Landmark Studies
o Silvia Knobloch and Dolf Zillmann’s experiment
o Conducted an experiment to see whether a person’s mood was causally
related to the type of music the person chooses to listen to
o Participants – 116 college students, two thirds were female, rewarded with
extra course credit for their participation, randomly assigned to one of the
three experimental conditions
o Independent Variable – mood
 Participants were asked to look at a pictures of people and were
instructed to identify how the people were feeling

Participants were given feedback: excellent (correctly identified
the emotions of 85% of the pictures), terrible (correctly identified
only 15%), average (correctly identified 55%)
 Mood groups – good mood (excellent), bad mood (terrible), and
neutral mood control group (average)
o Dependent Variable – the groups were then moved to another task that
they believed was completely unrelated, choose from 8 different songs to
play over the next 10 minutes (over 30 minutes of song so the participants
had to be selective)
o Results – bad mood group was more likely than the good mood group to
selective more energetic or joyful music, the results were statistically
significant
o Interpretation of Results – research supports their theory of mood
management, people who were in negative moods chose media that would
make them feel better
o Jean Meadowcroft and Dolf Zillmann’s experiment
o Questioned whether where a woman is in her menstrual cycle affects their
TV program viewing preference
 “When women experience a premenstrual syndrome, levels of
progesterone and estrogen take a precipitous drop. These chemical
changes typically trigger emotional changes as well – often leading
to feelings of bad moods and even depression. In contrast, when
women are in the middle of their cycles, progesterone and estrogen
are high and typically accompanied by more positive mood states”
(Sparks 2010)
o Results – “discovered a systematic difference in the program preferences
of women in their sample. The women who were at the premenstrual point
in their cycle and presumably experiencing lower moods were much more
likely to report a preference for watching situation comedies. Women who
were in the middle of their cycles, presumably having no bad moods to
manage, tended to prefer dramas over situation comedies” (Sparks 2010)
 Results were essentially replicated when studying women before
and after pregnancy
o Other Studies Results
 Shown different (female) behaviors than the ones reported by
Meadowcroft and Zillmann
 Males don’t necessarily behave in the same ways as females do
when it comes to media to alter mood states (men are more likely
to choose violence and action shows when they are in a bad mood)
 Scholars describe the evidence supporting this theory as “mixed”
Media Effects #2:
o People use media, such as music, to alter their current mood and to regulate their
arousal levels to reach a satisfactory level (or to maintain a positive mood).
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmv3WlKa6U8
o In this clip from Anger Management, Jack Nicholson’s character tries to
change the mood of Adam Sandler’s character by singing a positive song.
Jack Nicholson’s character appears to understand that such a song can
change ones mood from negative to positive, simply through the
consumption of it.
Media Effects (Outcomes)
o From the two mentioned studies and the other mentioned “conflicting” results,
Silvia Knobloch conducted some further research
o She believed that men and women handle stress differently
o “It may be that female prefer to initially choose one type of ruminate their
negative moods and choose mead that are not very absorbing; males in
contrast may tend to choose absorbing media that serve to distract them
initially from their negative mood state” (Sparks 2010)
o Past research also suggests that the mood management process may be more
sophisticated than the theory first proposed (people may initially choose one type
of media in response to their current mood and then change their mood
management strategy at some later point in time
o When researchers measure media choice after a mood-induction will
affect their observations
o Knobloch gathered information that supported these new ideas
o “While the overall evidence of the theory of mood-management seems to suggest
a more complicated set of processes at work that scholars are still in the process
of understanding, there seems to be little doubt at this point that people do use
their media selections to alter or manage their moods” (Sparks 2010)
o Reasons for complications surrounding the theory – four dimensions of media
content that are relevant to mood-management (Zillmann’s)
o Media have excitatory potential – they can influence our levels of
physiological arousal (people can chose media to have an arousing vs.
calming effect)
o Media have absorption potential – some media presentations totally
absorb us in the content and other presentations don’t really draw us in
very much (people in negative moods want to be “absorbed” into the
media to forget about their feelings, and vice versa with people in positive
moods)
o Media have more or less semantic affinity with a person’s thoughts that are
associated with positive and negative moods (if you just had a huge fight
with your romantic partner, you will want to watch something that will
“absorb” you but not a romantic comedy that will remind you of your
fight)
o Media have hedonic valence – pleasant media depictions should cause
people to feel happier and unpleasant media should sour the mood
o “Rethinking Mood Management Theory…”
o Recently in the scholarly community, an argument whether Zillmann’s
studies measure “moods” or “emotions” has broken out
o Chen writes a paper on the distinction between “moods” and “emotions”,
and argues that “an emotion(s) is actually the research construct in
Zillmann’s mood management theory” (Chen 2010)
o Three Supporting Arguments
o The phenomena was studied and observed in a relatively short
period of time
 The study would induce a certain type of “mood” and then
observe/measure the participants media choices
 “Since the ‘mood’ would be manipulated and measured
typically right after an event, it is logical to believe that
affective state in that specific short time period is more
likely to be an emotion rather than a mood” (Chen 2010)
o We cannot attribute the cause of the participant’s “mood” is not
clear
 Therefore “we should not attribute that mood to a single
factor such as mood manipulation” (Chen 2010)
 “If researchers did state a causal relationship between
media consumption and a immediately following affect
change, the affect should be an emotion” (Chen 2010)
o “ ‘Mood regulation’ is an expected outcome in mood management
theory, and the floating process of the affective state indicates its
characteristic is volatile rather than stable” (Chen 2010)
 Since “that affect state is floating in the short time period
instead of a stable status, … that affect is more likely to be
an emotion rather than a mood” (Chen 2010)
Chen, Y. , 2010-06-22 "Rethinking Mood Management Theory: The Issues of
Definitions and Measure About Mood and Emotion" Paper presented at the annual
meeting of the International Communication Association, Suntec Singapore
International Convention & Exhibition Centre, Suntec City, Singapore Online
<APPLICATION/PDF>. 2011-03-09 from
http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p405004_index.html
Strengths
o Applicable to all forms of media consumption (i.e. music, tv, movies, etc.)
o Answers questions about gratifications from media use
o There is little doubt that people do in fact make media selections to alter and/or
manage their moods
o Proven by a long history of research (Zillmann, 1991)
o Open and compatible with other theories such as the Disposition Theory and Uses
and Gratifications Theory
o Easy to create an experimental set-up and gather data
o Generates further research
Weaknesses
o Difficult to make general assumptions and assume causal relationships because
o Mood management strategies vary between different people
 Males vs. females
 Individuals tend to handle their stress differently
o The theory is more complicated than what was originally proposed.
 The way people manage their mood can change over time
o Its validity on certain forms of entertainment is questioned by some researchers.
o Sad movies and music consumption
 Contrary to what MMT suggests, “negative affect may not always
be perceived as negative or something necessarily to be alleviated”
(Bryant et al, 2003).
 There is mixed support for the gratifications from tragedy
Future Directions:
o One of the directions that MMT is taking is exploring the new mediums of
entertainment such as the Wii and Xbox and their revolutionary new types of
interactivity and how these new features impact our mood.
o The experimenters conducting the study emphasize that although their results
show these new gaming options to have positive effects on mood more research
should be done. They suggest that given different content negative effects on
mood are possible.
o Chen and Raney (2009) also discuss the relationship between mood and
enjoyment more specifically how we can use the relationship to better understand
what kinds of messages offer us genuine enjoyment.
o The experimenters, (Chen and Raney, 2009), discuss the possibility that further
research of the multidimensional aspects of mood regulation will afford scholars a
better understanding of why certain messages are pleasant and distracting while
others are pleasurable and mood altering by addressing the negative.
Yen-Shen, C., & Raney, A. A. (2009). Mood Management and Highly Interactive Video
Games: An Experimental Examination of Wii Playing on Mood Change and Enjoyment.
Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 1-32. Retrieved from
EBSCOhost.
Conclusion:
o Communication scholars have utilized mood management theory (MMT) for the
past few decades to help explain certain states of our mood and emotion by
looking at how we choose specific messages to regulate our mood.
o MMT discusses that the choices we make when choosing messages to consume is
a function of the affective state we are in when presented with choices.
o The theory can be applied to any type of communication genre, subsets of those
genres, and even to choices between communication messages and alternate
behaviors like playing basketball.
o MMT applies to all conceivable moods, not only one specific affective state (like
how the selective exposure theory focuses on dissonance).
o The basic premise that the theory follows is that individuals will strive to rid
themselves of a bad mood or at least diminish the strength of that mood or
conversely, that an individual will attempt to perpetuate and maintain the intensity
of a good mood.
o Although we are not always conscious of the motivation that drives us to choose
to consume certain messages we still arrange and rearrange environmental stimuli
suggesting that we are capable of choosing the stimuli that impact our moods and
modifies them as we see fit.
o Individuals initially arrange these stimuli in a random fashion; these arrangements
occur during good or bad moods and leave a memory trace that allows us to make
similar arrangements in similar circumstances.
o Individuals may choose to consume a particular message because their
consumption provided relief in the past, individuals also see certain messages
they’ve consumed have made good times better and expect similar gratification in
the future.