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

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

Du Xiufang1, Yuan Xiaoqian2, Xu Zheng2   

  1. (1School of Education and Psychology, University of Jinan, Jinan, 250024)
    (2 School of Psychology, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, 250358)
  • Received:2021-04-30 Revised:2021-10-02 Online:2023-05-20 Published:2023-05-20
  • Contact: Xiu-Fang DU

建议者印象和基于动机的个体差异特征对建议采纳的影响

杜秀芳**1 ,袁晓倩2 ,徐 政2   

  1. (1 济南大学教育与心理科学学院,济南,250024)
    (2 山东师范大学心理学院,济南,250358)
  • 通讯作者: 杜秀芳

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

摘要: 实验1和实验2分别探讨了建议者温暖和能力印象与认知需求和情感需求对建议采纳的影响。结果发现:(1)认知需求高的个体对能力印象建议者的建议采纳程度显著高于对温暖印象的建议者,而认知需求低的个体对能力和温暖印象建议者的建议采纳程度没有显著差异。(2)情感需求高的个体对能力和温暖印象建议者的建议采纳程度差异不显著,但均高于情感需求低的个体;而情感需求低的个体对能力印象建议者的建议采纳程度显著高于对温暖印象建议者。(3)总体上,决策者对能力印象建议者的建议采纳程度高于对温暖印象建议者。

关键词: 建议采纳, 温暖, 能力, 认知需求, 情感需求