Advice taking vs. combining opinions: Framing social information as advice increases source’s perceived helping intentions, trust, and influence
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597824000207
Maxim Milyavsky, Yaniv Gvili
In our work and personal lives, we regularly receive advice and opinions from others. The advice-taking literature has tacitly assumed that decision makers treat information framed as “advice” and framed as “opinions” equally. The authors challenge this assumption, proposing that decision makers are more likely to solicit and utilize “advice” than “opinions.” They argue that this difference occurs because information seen as advice is more likely to signal the provider’s concern for the recipient. Across six preregistered experiments, the authors found that participants placed greater weight on others’ information when it was presented as advice as opposed to when it was presented as opinion. Supporting their hypotheses, information framed as advice increased the receiver’s sense that the information provider intended to help them, thereby contributing to greater trust in the provider. Among other contributions, this research may help managers communicate their messages more effectively. For example, well-intentioned managers might phrase feedback as opinions to convey that employees have freedom to follow their own course. This research suggests that this “opinion framing” might lead employees to discount the feedback, thereby undermining its application.
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