<p>The present study examined the impact of discrete emotions—sadness and anger—on the stages of impression formation. Across three experiments, the research delved into the effects of induced mood states on spontaneous situational and trait activations, spontaneous trait bindings, and intentional judgments. Using a probe recognition task, Experiment 1 found that participants primed with anger were more likely to engage in spontaneous trait activations compared to those primed with sadness. However, participants primed with sadness demonstrated a similar degree of spontaneous situational activations as those primed with anger. Employing a false recognition paradigm, Experiment 2 indicated that participants in the angry condition were more prone to forming spontaneous trait bindings than those in the sad condition. Experiment 3 found that participants in the angry condition made higher trait ratings than those in the sad condition, while situational ratings remained unaffected by the primed mood. The findings support the Appraisal — Tendency Framework (ATF) theory, suggesting that anger, characterized by high certainty, and sadness, marked by uncertainty, have distinct impacts on the stages of impression formation. This research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the role of incidental emotions in social judgment and reasoning processes.</p>