权力感和任务难度对个体建议采纳的影响

The Effect of Power Level and Task Difficulty on Advice Taking

从人际关系的视角,通过两个实验探讨权力感和任务难度对个体建议采纳的影响。实验1启动被试的合理权力感,实验2启动被试的不合理权力感。研究发现:(1)当权力合理时,高权力感水平决策者的建议采纳程度显著低于低权力感水平的决策者;决策者在困难任务中的建议采纳程度显著高于简单任务中。(2)当权力不合理时,在简单任务中,高权力感水平决策者的建议采纳程度显著低于低权力感水平的决策者;而在困难任务中,两者的建议采纳程度没有显著性差异。

In the domain of advice taking, most research focuses on how others＇ advice influences the advisee＇s decision and the extent to which the advisee accepts the advice. Advice taking is an interpersonal process in which the social status of adviser and judge plays an important role. In such a setting, power may convey important information about the relationship between the adviser and the advisee. So the perceived power of on the part of the advisee may affect the degree of advice taking. Because individuals who experience high level of power have more confidence, and tend to keep distance from others according to the social distance theory of power, individuals with high level of subjective sense of power tend to discount advice, which is stated by previous research. But the legitimacy of power may decrease the confidence and reduce the social distance of the advisee. That is, the influence of power on behaviors will change if individuals think the power is illegitimate, so the effect of illegal power on advice taking would be reversed. What＇s more, task difficulty may also moderate the effect of power on advice taking. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of different power and task difficulty on advice taking. Two experiments were designed within the JAS paradigm. The decision task was estimating the number of coins in a glass. The legitimate power in experiment 1 and the illegitimate power in experiment 2 were primed by using word search tasks. There were 122 college students taking part in experiment 1 and 97 students taking part in experiment 2. The dependent variable was the level of advice-taking which was calculated by the formula of WOA （weight of advice）. The independent variables were power level （high vs. low） and task difficulty （easy vs. difficult）. Dependent variable was the extent of advice taking, and estimation task was used in both experiments. The results were as follow： （1） When advisees thought their power were legitimate, their level of power significantly influenced the level of advice taking. Individuals experiencing high level of power were less receptive to advice than individuals experiencing low level of power. Task difficulty had significant effects on advice taking. People weighed advice more significantly when the task was difficult than when the task was easy. （2） When the advisees thought their power was illegitimate, individuals experiencing high level of power weighted advice less than individuals experiencing low level of power when the task was easy, but there was no difference between them when the task was difficult. This research suggested that the power status unconsciously led to reject others＇ advice, although everyone knew that the value of listening to both viewpoints to get better informed. So we should remind ourselves constantly not treat others by condescendingly. A modest attitude to others＇ advice is conducive to rational decision making.