When do incidental mood effects last? lay beliefs versus actual effects

In a series of studies we examine how incidental mood present at the time of an experience affects judgments made long after the mood has dissipated and compare this to lay beliefs about how mood affects memory-based judgments. We find that memory-based judgments are affected by incidental mood only when there is an external prompt to evaluate the stimulus in real time. This is contrasted with lay beliefs about the effects of mood, which are not sensitive to delay or to the presence of real-time evaluations. The mismatch between lay beliefs and actual effects leads consumers to distort previously unbiased memory-based judgments when they are reminded of the source of the incidental mood.