Washington, Feb 10 (IANS) A sick or sad child might cling to mom’s leg. But that same child - fed, rested and generally content - will happily toddle off to explore every nook and cranny of the known world.
If you’ve seen or experienced these scenarios, you may not be surprised about the latest finding from an international team of social and cognitive psychologists.

A negative mood, it turns out, imparts a warm glow to the familiar. Happiness, on the other hand, makes novelty attractive (and can instead give the familiar a “blah” cast). But it is the first time the effect has been experimentally demonstrated in humans.

The study was led by University of California, San Diego (UCSD) psychology professor Piotr Winkielman, with Marieke de Vries, currently affiliated with the Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands.

The findings, Winkielman said, not only contribute to understanding basic human psychology but also have numerous applications: To parenting and other interpersonal relationships and even in many of the “persuasion professions”.

In business, in marketing and advertising and in political campaigns, people would be well-advised to take note of the research.

When companies introduce novel products, for example, they may want to do so in settings that encourage a happy, playful mood.

A surgeon’s office, meanwhile, which people visit rarely and in stressful circumstances, should probably stay away from edgy decor, opting instead for the comfy and familiar, Winkielman said.

It is a classic psychological observation that people prefer familiar stimuli, described 100 years ago by British psychologist Edward Titchener as the “warm glow of familiarity”.

In a century of research since, many studies have supported the notion and shown that even simple repetition will enhance liking of an object, said a UCSD release.

The current researchers wondered, however: Is familiarity always pleasant or warm? Perhaps, they reasoned, that varies with an individual’s mood.

The study is published online in Psychological Science.