udgment and Memory
There is evidence that our emotions affect our judgment and memory (Forgas, Burnham & Trimbali, 1988). In one study, subjects who were either happy, angry, or sad were asked to describe what was happening in a rather ambiguous picture (Clark, 1982). Subjects described the pictures to fit their own emotions; happy people saw happy events, sad people described sad events, and so on. Leventhal (1982) found that emotions affect how people respond to illness. For example, depressed cancer patients focused on their pain and the futility of life, whereas angry patients focused on coping and ways to combat their illness. In another case, subjects placed in either a happy or unhappy mood tended to recall early life experiences in line with their mood (Rholes, Risin, & Lane, 1987). Summing up these effects, one investigator noted that "when we are feeling good, the evidence indicates that we tend to view others more positively, to give more favorable reports about products we have purchased, to rate ambiguous slides more pleasant, to have more positive expectations about the future, and to give more positive associations to situations in which we imagine ourselves" (Clark, 1982).