Seeking advice: A sampling approach to advice taking

Journal Title: Judgment and Decision Making - Year 2016, Vol 11, Issue 4

Abstract

The present research addresses advice taking from a holistic perspective covering both advice seeking and weighting. We build on previous theorizing that assumes that underweighting of advice results from biased samples of information. That is, decision makers have more knowledge supporting their own judgment than that of another person and thus weight the former stronger than the latter. In the present approach, we assume that participants reduce this informational asymmetry by the sampling of advice and that sampling frequency depends on the information ecology. Advice that is distant from the decision maker’s initial estimate should lead to a higher frequency of advice sampling than close advice. Moreover, we assume that advice distant from the decision maker’s initial estimate and advice that is supported by larger samples of advisory estimates are weighted more strongly in the final judgment. We expand the classical research paradigm with a sampling phase that allows participants to sample any number of advisory estimates before revising their judgments. Three experiments strongly support these hypotheses, thereby advancing our understanding of advice taking as an adaptive process.

Authors and Affiliations

Mandy Hütter and Fabian Ache

Keywords

Related Articles

It must be awful for them: Perspective and task context affects ratings for health conditions.

When survey respondents rate the quality of life (QoL) associated with a health condition, they must not only evaluate the health condition itself, but must also interpret the meaning of the rating scale in order to assi...

This way, please: Uncovering the directional effects of attribute translations on decision making

The translation of choice attributes into more meaningful information (e.g., from kWh to costs) is a form of choice architecture that is thought to facilitate decision making by providing decision signposts that activate...

Behind the veil of ignorance: Self-serving bias in climate change negotiations

Slowing climate change will almost certainly require a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, but agreement on who should reduce emissions by how much is difficult, in part because of the self-serving bias—the tendency t...

Why do professional athletes have different time preferences than non-athletes?

The objective of this paper is to measure and compare the subjective time discounting of professional athletes and non-athletes. By using a questionnaire, we found higher subjective discounting for professional athletes...

When good = better than average

People report themselves to be above average on simple tasks and below average on difficult tasks. This paper proposes an explanation for this effect that is simpler than prior explanations. The new explanation is that p...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP678255
  • DOI -
  • Views 123
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

Mandy Hütter and Fabian Ache (2016). Seeking advice: A sampling approach to advice taking. Judgment and Decision Making, 11(4), -. https://europub.co.uk./articles/-A-678255