The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been felt across globe. While health experts work to spread life-saving information, misinformation and fake news about virus undermine these efforts. What actions can people take when confronting misinformation, what factors motivate actions? We propose that engage in investigative behaviors (e.g., fact-checking, seeking alternative opinions) scrutiniz...

Currently dominant explanations of mood effects on persuasive message processing (i.e., cognitive capacity and feelings as information) predict that happy moods lead to less message scrutiny than neutral or sad moods. The hedonic contingency view (D. T. Wegener & R. E. Petty, 1994) predicts that happy moods can sometimes be associated with greater message processing activity because people in a...

This article explores humor’s impact on cognitive processing of political messages. Although recent research has pointed to effects of late-night comedy viewing on political attitudes and cognitions (Moy, Xenos, & Hess, 2003; Young, 2004, 2006), scant attention has been paid to the development of a theoretical model to account for these outcomes. This manuscript posits that humor suspends argum...