Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • March 2012
  • Article
  • Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Anxiety, Advice, and the Ability to Discern: Feeling Anxious Motivates Individuals to Seek and Use Advice

By: F. Gino, A.W. Brooks and M.E. Schweitzer
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

Across eight experiments, we describe the influence of anxiety on advice seeking and advice taking. We find that anxious individuals are more likely to seek and rely on advice than are those in a neutral emotional state (Experiment 1), but this pattern of results does not generalize to other negatively-valenced emotions (Experiment 2). The relationships between anxiety and advice seeking and anxiety and advice taking are mediated by self-confidence; anxiety lowers self-confidence, which increases advice seeking and reliance upon advice (Experiment 3). Though anxiety also impairs information processing, impaired information processing does not mediate the relationship between anxiety and advice taking (Experiment 4). Finally, we find that anxious individuals fail to discriminate between good and bad advice (Experiment 5a-c), and between advice from advisors with and without a conflict of interest (Experiment 6).

Keywords

Motivation and Incentives

Citation

Gino, F., A.W. Brooks, and M.E. Schweitzer. "Anxiety, Advice, and the Ability to Discern: Feeling Anxious Motivates Individuals to Seek and Use Advice." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 102, no. 3 (March 2012): 497–512.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Read Now

About The Authors

Francesca Gino

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

Alison Wood Brooks

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • Current Opinion in Psychology

    The Conversational Circumplex: Identifying, Prioritizing, and Pursuing Informational and Relational Motives in Conversation

    By: Michael Yeomans, Maurice E. Schweitzer and Alison Wood Brooks
    • Harvard Business Review

    Managing a Polarized Workforce: How to Foster Debate and Promote Trust

    By: Julia A. Minson and Francesca Gino
    • 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Feeling Seen: Leader Eye Gaze Promotes Psychological Safety, Participation, and Voice

    By: Nicole Abi-Esber, Alison Wood Brooks and Ethan Burris
More from the Authors
  • The Conversational Circumplex: Identifying, Prioritizing, and Pursuing Informational and Relational Motives in Conversation By: Michael Yeomans, Maurice E. Schweitzer and Alison Wood Brooks
  • Managing a Polarized Workforce: How to Foster Debate and Promote Trust By: Julia A. Minson and Francesca Gino
  • Feeling Seen: Leader Eye Gaze Promotes Psychological Safety, Participation, and Voice By: Nicole Abi-Esber, Alison Wood Brooks and Ethan Burris
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College