The impact of impression on advisor and motivation-based individual differences on advice taking

Du Xiufang, Yuan Xiaoqian, Xu Zheng

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2023, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (3) : 719-725.

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PDF(566 KB)
Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2023, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (3) : 719-725.

The impact of impression on advisor and motivation-based individual differences on advice taking

  • Du Xiufang1, Yuan Xiaoqian2, Xu Zheng2
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Abstract

In the process of advice taking, a process of interpersonal interaction, impressions on the advisors formed by decision makers during the interaction with them may affect decision makers’ evaluation of the advisors and then affect decision makers’ adoption of their advice. In the field of social cognition, the impression on a person is usually divided into two dimensions: warmth and competence. For advisors with competence, decision makers will give more consideration to their advice, because they may give the decision makers such impression as knowledgeable, experienced, etc. For advisors with warm characteristics, the warmth dimension may convey a kind of affinity to decision makers. How do people take advice in daily life? Are they more willing to take the advice from warm advisors, or inclined to adopt the advice from competent advisors? This may depend on the characteristics of individual differences of decision makers. The present research considers two individual difference variables that may be relevant to the warmth and competence dimensions: Need for cognition (NFC) and Need for affect (NFA). NFC has been defined as people’s tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activity; while NFA as people’s general motivation to approach or avoid situations and activities that are emotion inducing for themselves and others. Previous research found that NFC predicts liking of cognitively challenging situations and events, individuals with higher NFC may favor those higher in competence, because they can provide them more cognitive challenges. Similarly, NFA predicts liking of affective and emotionally stimulating situations and events, individuals with higher NFA may favor those higher in warmth, because they can provide them more emotional stimulation. We speculate that individuals with high NFA will adopt more advice from warm advisors, and individual with high NFC will adopt more advice from competent advisors. Two experiments were designed to explore the influence of motivation-based differences in individual characteristics and the impression on advisors on the adoption of advice. There are two types of motivations in individual differences: need for affect and need for cognitive, so Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 respectively explore impressions on the advisors, warm or competent, and the decision makers’ cognitive and affective needs affect their adoption of advice. The results showed that: (1) Individuals with high cognitive needs are more likely to take advice from advisors with competent impression than those with warm impressions. However, individuals with low cognitive needs have no significant differences in the acceptance from the advisors with competent or warm impressions. (2) Individuals with high affective needs take more advice than individuals with low affective needs, whether from advisors with warm impression or from advisors with competent impression, while those with low affective needs are more likely to take advice from competent advisors than warm advisors. (3) In general, decision makers take more advice from advisors with competent impression than from those with warm impression.

Key words

Advice taking / Warmth / Competence / Need for affect / Need for cognition

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Du Xiufang, Yuan Xiaoqian, Xu Zheng. The impact of impression on advisor and motivation-based individual differences on advice taking[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2023, 46(3): 719-725
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