AUTHOR=Wang Xiuxin , Du Xiufang TITLE=Why Does Advice Discounting Occur? The Combined Roles of Confidence and Trust JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=9 YEAR=2018 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02381 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02381 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=

Judges tend to discount the opinions of others even though advice is often helpful in improving their accuracy. The present research proposes that this phenomenon of advice discounting results from the judges’ confidence in their initial decision and little trust in advice. Furthermore, the degree of advice discounting may be predicted by the combined roles of confidence and trust. Three studies provide evidence for these hypotheses. Participants were very confident in their initial estimation and had little trust in the advice (study 1). The degree of advice discounting decreased when participants felt less confidence in performing difficult tasks compared with easy tasks (study 2) or when participants placed more trust in advice because the advice was from an expert rather than from a novice (study 3). In addition, confidence and trust predicted the degree of advice discounting across three studies. These findings shed new light on the mechanism underlying advice discounting and advice taking by indicating the combined roles of confidence and trust.