The Influence of Different Types of Power and Status on Advice-Taking

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240418

Abstract

Abstract: Power and status are two prevalent bases of social hierarchy. Power and status share important similarities but also differ from each other. Power means the extent to which an individual can control others' outcomes by granting or withholding socially valued resources. Status refers to the extent to which an individual is respected, admired, and highly regarded in the eyes of others. Previous empirical studies on how power and status influence individuals' motives and behaviors have primarily focused on individuals with power and/or status. Scant studies have explored how the other party responded to individuals who have power and/or status, especially in the field of advice-taking area. This study attempts to explore how advisors' power and status influence the advice recipients' following powerful and/or high-status people's advice and the underlying mechanism.
Drawing from the literature on social hierarchy and interpersonal judgments, we propose that power and status have distinct effects on advice recipients' advice-taking. Four experiments were designed to test the hypotheses. Based on the scenario method, Study 1 separately examined the effects of high power and high status on advice-taking compared with the control group. Study 2 combined power and status into four conditions, that are, high power and high status, high power and low status, low power and high status, and low power and low status, to explore how advisors with different kinds of power and status influence acceptors' advice-taking by using scenario-based power/status manipulation and a preference decision-making task. Study 2 also explored whether the perceived competence and warmth of the advice providers mediated the relationship between the advisor's power and status with advice recipients' advice-taking. Based on Study 2, Study 3 further explored the effects of power/status on advice-taking and the mediating role of perceived competence and warmth by using social occupation-based power/status manipulation and a perceptual decision-making task. In study 4, a large sample was used to verify the results of the previous three studies based on social occupational power/status manipulation and the preference decision-making task.
The results showed that advisors who have higher power or status can promote advice recipients' advice-taking behavior. The positive relationship between power and advice-taking is contingent on the status of the advisor. When the status of the advisor is high, power is positively correlated with advice recipients' advice-taking; when the status is low, the positive relationship between power and advice-taking is weakened or even disappeared. Perception of the advisor's competence mediates the relationship between the position of the advisor's power/status and the recipients' advice-taking behavior, while the perception of warmth does not have a consistent mediating effect on the relationship.
To conclude, the power and status position of the advisor positively predict advice recipients' advice-taking. The positive relationship between advisors' power and the acceptor's advice-taking is moderated by the advisor's status. That is, when the status of the advisor is high, the relationship is positive; when the status is low, the relationship is weakened or even disappeared. And the relationship between the power/status of the advisor and the acceptor's advice-taking is mediated by the perception of the advisor's competence.

Key words: advice-taking, the power of the advisor, status of the advisor, perception of competence, perception of warmth

摘要： 通过四个实验研究探索了建议者的权力和地位及其交互作用对建议采纳的影响。研究1基于偏好性决策任务考察了高权和高位建议者对人们建议采纳的影响;研究2基于偏好性决策任务探索了建议采纳如何受建议者权/位的影响及能力和热情感知的中介作用;研究3基于事实性决策任务及社会职业的权位操纵进一步探索权/位对建议采纳的影响及能力和热情的中介作用;研究4基于社会职业的权/位操纵及偏好性任务决策进一步验证以上结果。结果建议者的权力和地位与建议采纳正相关,地位强化了权力与建议采纳的正向关系,能力中介了权力和地位与建议采纳的关系。结论建议者权力和地位对其建议采纳的影响表现出异质性,建议者能力感知在其中起着中介作用。

关键词: 建议采纳, 建议者权力, 建议者地位, 能力感知, 热情感知

Duan Jinyun, Wu Jueyu, Xu Tingting, Liang Fenghua. The Influence of Different Types of Power and Status on Advice-Taking[J]. Journal of Psychological Science, 2024, 47(4): 910-917.

段锦云, 吴珏彧, 徐婷婷, 梁凤华. 建议者的权力和地位对决策者建议采纳的影响^*[J]. 心理科学, 2024, 47(4): 910-917.

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