Cultural Variations in Reasons for Advice Seeking

Abstract

Five studies examined cultural differences in reasons for advice‐seeking behaviors. Content analyses in Study 1A and self‐ratings in Study 1B consistently revealed that Euro‐Canadians were more likely than East Asians (mainly Chinese) to seek advice for informational reasons, whereas East Asians were more likely than Euro‐Canadians to seek advice for relational reasons. Study 2A showed that Chinese displayed a higher level of relationship concern than Euro‐Canadians in deciding from whom to seek advice in a decision dilemma. Study 2B found that, although Chinese and Euro‐Canadians did not differ from each other on willingness to pay for informational advice, Chinese were willing to pay more for building a relationship with the advisor through advice seeking than Euro‐Canadians were. Study 3 explored how the advice giver might perceive an advice seeker in terms of their competence and the closeness of their relationship after advice was sought for various reasons. We found that relationally oriented advice seeking increased the perceived competence of the advice seeker among Chinese more than among Euro‐Canadians. Information‐oriented advice seeking increased the perceived closeness between the advice seeker and advice giver among Chinese more than among Euro‐Canadians. Implications for other aspects of advice exchange are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Collective harmony as a moderator of the association between other-referent upward counterfactual thinking and depression

“…For example, compared to less collectivistic European-Americans, Russian residents tend to give more advice and solicit advice, and view advice-giving as an expression of social support (Chentsova-Dutton & Vaughn, 2012). Chinese people engage in advice-seeking behaviour to enhance their relationships more than European-Canadians (Ji et al, 2017) and are more likely than Americans to believe that solicited advice brings good outcomes to distressed individuals, including confidence, decreased stress, and fast recovery from personal hardships (Feng, 2015).…”

A Comparative Study on Online Advice-Seeking Strategies between Malaysian and Australian Women

“…These studies focused predominantly on the European (Chentsova-Dutton & Vaughn, 2012), American (Glide, 2015), Asian (Morrow, 2012), and the African (Hampel, 2015) regions. Similarly, cross-cultural comparison studies on advice strategies also centered on only a few cultures, for instance comparing the Russian and American cultures (Chentsova-Dutton & Vaughn, 2012), the American and Chinese cultures (Feng, 2015;Feng & Feng, 2011), and the East Asian and the Euro-Canadian cultures (Ji et al, 2016). Therefore, not much is known about the advice strategies of other cultural communities.…”

Empathic decision-making: Is well-intentioned help effective?

“…Two of the primary sampling concerns have been discussed in the "Empathic Decision-Making and Individual Differences" section (pg 76). There is strong evidence that "good" helping is culturally defined (Chentsova-Dutton & Vaughn, 2012;Ji et al, 2017;Mojaverian & Kim, 2013), and as such, the results of this study can only be generalized within a highly educated, Midwestern, and predominantly Caucasian setting. If this study was conducted in more diverse populations or other countries, different helping strategies might be considered effective and ineffective.…”

“…The next finding in this experiment suggested that empathic decision -making cannot be predicted by demographic or personality variables. Prior studies have suggested that gender (Smith, 2006;Cristov-Moore et al, 2014;Eisenberg & Lennon, 1983;Rose & Rudolph, 2006;Oswald, 2000;Eagly & Crowley, 1986), culture (Chentsova-Dutton & Vaughn, 2012;Ji et al, 2017;Mojaverian & Kim, 2013), personality (Cavallo et al, 2016), and attachment style (Harel et al, 2011) Personality results were also interesting since empathic decision-making did not seem to be influenced by interpersonal patterns, related personality traits, or attachment style. These results do not support established literature.…”

“…If this study was conducted in more diverse populations or other countries, different helping strategies might be considered effective and ineffective. Furthermore, cultures with distinct communication patterns and resource availability might demonstrate different preferences for emotionally sustaining or solutionoriented responses (Chentsova-Dutton & Vaughn, 2012;Ji et al, 2017).…”