premise: The prospect of accepting negative feedback about ourselves elicits conflict, as we need to assess the immediate emotional costs of negative information about ourselves against the long-term benefits of gaining useful feedback. Studies have confirmed what most managers seem to have known already, that the mood we in whilst receiving feedback often influences the relative weight people assign to emotional costs versus the informational benefits of receiving negative feedback. The studies that have been carried out have demonstrated that positive moods can function as a buffer and therefore enable people affected in this way to both accept, as well as better handle, the emotional costs of negative self-related information.
hypothesis: Managers are increasingly taking employees moods into consideration when providing them with negative feedback regarding their performance.