Imposing Advice on Powerful People

Abstract

This paper examines how advice recipients’ feelings of power and the solicitation of advice affects the perception of advice. Participants were primed for low or high power, wrote about a personal problem, and shared it online to a peer. The peer was a confederate who gave advice. Advice was either permitted (participant was asked if they wanted advice and said yes), guaranteed (participant was given advice without asking if wanted), or imposed (participant said they did not want advice, but advice was given). Participants had lower utilization intentions and positive emotions for imposed advice than permitted or guaranteed advice. High power participants had lower intentions than low power participants to use imposed advice, especially when disclosing a more personal problem.