{"title":"The impact of advice uncertainty and individual regulatory modes on advice taking","authors":"Xiufang Du, Ruiqi He, Yating Wang, Jing Wang","doi":"10.1002/ejsp.3063","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>In previous research on advice taking, researchers have mainly focused on certain types of advice. However, in practice, when people give advice to others, there is often a degree of uncertainty (e.g. I think that the distance between Beijing and Shanghai is between 800 and 1200 km). To date, only a few studies have examined the impact of uncertain advice on advice taking. Through two studies, the present research explores the influence of advice uncertainty and individuals’ regulatory mode predominance on advice taking and the mediating mechanism. In Study 1, the participants' chronic regulatory mode was measured by a questionnaire, and in Study 2, we induced the predominance of the participants’ situational regulatory mode using a recall task. We found that people are more likely to adopt advice with low uncertainty. The moderating effect of participants' regulatory mode on the impact of advice uncertainty on advice taking occurs only when the regulatory mode is induced by the situation. For the assessment-predominant group, there was a significant difference between the no-uncertainty group and the high-uncertainty group, while for the locomotion-predominant group, this difference was not significant. Additionally, our study revealed the mediating role of advice reliability, which existed only when the participants were able to compare low- and no-uncertainty advice in a within-participant design. That is, when decision makers adopt uncertainty advice within ranges, they not only consider reliability but also weigh multiple factors. Our findings contribute to understanding the mechanisms underlying individuals' preferences for uncertain advice and reasoning about individual differences.</p>","PeriodicalId":48377,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Social Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Journal of Social Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejsp.3063","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In previous research on advice taking, researchers have mainly focused on certain types of advice. However, in practice, when people give advice to others, there is often a degree of uncertainty (e.g. I think that the distance between Beijing and Shanghai is between 800 and 1200 km). To date, only a few studies have examined the impact of uncertain advice on advice taking. Through two studies, the present research explores the influence of advice uncertainty and individuals’ regulatory mode predominance on advice taking and the mediating mechanism. In Study 1, the participants' chronic regulatory mode was measured by a questionnaire, and in Study 2, we induced the predominance of the participants’ situational regulatory mode using a recall task. We found that people are more likely to adopt advice with low uncertainty. The moderating effect of participants' regulatory mode on the impact of advice uncertainty on advice taking occurs only when the regulatory mode is induced by the situation. For the assessment-predominant group, there was a significant difference between the no-uncertainty group and the high-uncertainty group, while for the locomotion-predominant group, this difference was not significant. Additionally, our study revealed the mediating role of advice reliability, which existed only when the participants were able to compare low- and no-uncertainty advice in a within-participant design. That is, when decision makers adopt uncertainty advice within ranges, they not only consider reliability but also weigh multiple factors. Our findings contribute to understanding the mechanisms underlying individuals' preferences for uncertain advice and reasoning about individual differences.
期刊介绍:
Topics covered include, among others, intergroup relations, group processes, social cognition, attitudes, social influence and persuasion, self and identity, verbal and nonverbal communication, language and thought, affect and emotion, embodied and situated cognition and individual differences of social-psychological relevance. Together with original research articles, the European Journal of Social Psychology"s innovative and inclusive style is reflected in the variety of articles published: Research Article: Original articles that provide a significant contribution to the understanding of social phenomena, up to a maximum of 12,000 words in length.