Differential weighting in choice versus advice: I'll do this, you do that

We propose that when individuals make a decision for themselves they weight attributes more uniformly compared to when they give advice. In Study 1, 1 38 participants were given a hypothetical choice between two jobs varying o n two dimensions and asked either to choose for themselves, offer advice to a best friend, or offer advice to an acquaintance. We hypothesized that re spondents offering advice would favor the option with the higher value on t he more important dimension. More participants in the acquaintance conditio n recommended the job with a higher value on the important dimension than p articipants making the choice for themselves. Study 2 (N = 62) tested the h ypothesis in a situation where the options consisted of three dimensions. O ne option was relatively high on two of the three dimensions and the other option was relatively high on the remaining 'socially important', or 'promi nent', dimension. The uniform weighting hypothesis for self-choice predicts higher frequency of choice for the former option. Data were consistent wit h this prediction. Study 3 (N = 170) tested the hypothesis in students' cho ice of major at the university. We made use of an actual event, a pending u niversity budget cut, that would require some students to change majors. Pa rticipants either made the decision for themselves, made a recommendation t o a student in their same department, or made a recommendation to a student in another department facing the analogous dilemma. Replicating the findin gs of the first two studies, participants offering advice to a student in a nother department suggested staying with their current major significantly more than participants making the choice for themselves. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.