Recent research has demonstrated that egocentric biases keep the
decision maker from reaping the benefits of additional opinions,
concluding that the adaptiveness of advice taking to the information
ecology is limited. This research has however focused almost
exclusively on advice weighting, thereby largely neglecting advice
seeking as an important prerequisite. Across three experiments, we
assessed the self-determined sample size of advisory estimates and
their subsequent integration with participants’ initial estimates.
These experiments demonstrate that both the distance of advice from
the decision maker's opinion and heterogeneity of advice trigger
advice seeking and a stronger tendency to integrate advice with their
own estimates. By introducing a more holistic approach to the
investigation of advice taking, our experiments reveal first relations
between advice seeking and the subsequent utilization of advice.
Consequently, participants appear willing to explore and adapt to the
information ecology when given the opportunity.
--
Fabian Ache, M.Sc.-Psych.
Arbeitsbereich Sozial- und Wirtschaftspsychologie
Psychologisches Institut
Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
Schleichstr. 4
72076 Tübingen
phone: +49 (0)7071 - 29 - 78336
mailto: fabian.ache@uni-tuebingen.de
www:
http://www.pi.uni-tuebingen.de/arbeitsbereiche/sozial-und-wirtschaftspsychologie/arbeitsbereich/fabian-ache.html