Ask About The Journey, Not The Destination: Seeking Process Advice Leads To Positive Impressions And More Helpful Advice Than Outcome Advice

Abstract: People often want input from others but worry about interpersonal costs, such as seeming incompetent or burdening advisors. In this paper, we propose that the type of advice request determines whether seekers can obtain helpful guidance without incurring these costs. We distinguish outcome advice requests, which focus on what decision to make, from process advice requests, which focus on how to make the decision. Although people naturally gravitate toward outcome advice (Study 1), our studies show that process advice requests yield significant advantages. Advice-givers perceive process advice seekers more positively, viewing them as having invested more effort (Studies 2–4). Process requests also elicit more factual, less opinion-driven information, producing advice that seekers find more helpful (Studies 2–3). Across four studies (Nadvisors = 1,905; Nadvisees = 1,189), our research demonstrates the dual benefits of asking for process advice: it improves impressions of seekers and enhances the usefulness of advice.

Keywords: Advice-seeking; impression; advice utility