The pattern of infusion of affection is a theoretical model in the field of human psychology developed by social psychologist Joseph Paul Forgas in the early 1990s. The affection infusion model tries to explain how humor affects a person’s ability to process information.
A key affirmation of the pattern of affection infusion is that mood effects tend to be even more important in complex situations that require significant cognitive processing.
- In other words.
- As situations become more complex and unforeseen.
- Humor becomes more influential in transmitting assessments and responses.
Humor affects our judgment, but not systematically. For humor to have an effect on our judgment, it must nullify the forces that would normally lead to the trial process, that is, we could say that it would need to change the normal pattern.
Humor has no effect when we make judgments based on direct recovery from a simple conclusion, or when faced with routine behaviors and responses, however, humor does have an effect when we make a decision.
Thus, humor ends up working at a level below consciousness, snevering our judgments without us nodding.
Forgas defined the term infusion of affection as “the process by which emotion-laden information influences and integrates into the trial process, entering the judge’s deliberations and possibly altering the outcome of the act of judging. “
In other words, the infusion of affection is a process that determines the degree to which mood can affect our judgment.
According to the pattern of infusion of affection, affection (mood and emotion) has a significant influence not only on the processing of information, but also on the behaviors that are the responses resulting from this treatment.
For example, if a person receives an excessively high electricity bill, they will react differently if they have had a quiet and stress-free day and have had a day full of inconveniences and problems.
In the latter circumstance, the person will experience high levels of affection infusion, as their condition will undoubtedly worsen when they see the bill they have received.
One hypothesis of the pattern of infusion of affection is that this affection will generally influence judgment more intensely as the complexity of the situation increases. Very complex situations can have a number of relevant characteristics, such as the amount of effort required to process information.
According to Forgas, different levels of affective infusion can be considered a continuum, with four alternative treatment strategies as markers throughout this continuum, representing the different degrees of severity with which humor can exert its influence.
Forgas treatment strategies include
In identifying these strategies, we should consider two important differential factors: the information search strategies used to perform a task (open or restricted) and the scope of the information that is considered in the construction of the response.