The Impact of Decision-Makers' Motivations for Seeking Advice on Advisors' Advice-Giving

In everyday life, people frequently seek advice from others. The purposes of seeking advice can be twofold: first, to improve the accuracy of decisions, which is driven by accuracy motivation; and second, to establish good relationships with the advisors, which is driven by relationship motivation. Advisors, when giving advice to others, also consider the potential motivations behind the decision makers' advice-seeking. Two studies explore how advisors give advice based on the perceived advice-seeking motivations of decision makers. The results indicate that: (1) In terms of willingness to give advice, the impact of perceived advice-seeking motivations is not significant, but a closer social distance can increase the advisors' willingness to give advice. (2) Regarding advice-giving behaviour, when advisors perceive close friends seeking advice based on relationship motivation (compared to accuracy motivation), they tend to search for more information and spend long time searching. However, when they perceive ordinary friends seeking advice driven by accuracy motivation (compared to relationship motivation), advisors exhibit greater effort in searching for information. This research can help decision makers get better advice.