The impact of advice distance on advice taking: Evidence from an ERP study

To use ERPs to investigate the impact of advice distance on advice taking in the Judge-Advisor System (JAS) paradigm, behavioural and ERP data were recorded from 20 subjects. The behavioural discrepancies and EEG characteristics of advice taking, as affected by the advice distances, were compared. The results showed that the relationship between the modification rate of a decision maker's initial estimation and the advice distance exhibited an inverse U-shaped curve. During the advice evaluation stage, different advice distances induced the feedback-related negativity (FRN) and subsequent P300 components. The amplitude of the FRN increased as the advice distance increased, while the amplitude of P300 in the zero distance condition was significantly larger than those in the intermediate and far distance conditions. These findings indicate that the advice evaluation process of a decision maker is related to conflict perception, prediction error and motivational or affective significance.