Preparing for negotiation often involves seeking advice from others. For example, you might ask a friend or colleague: “How much do you think I should ask for?” “What are the odds they will say yes?” “What can I do to make my offer more appealing?”
We often offer advice during our formal and informal negotiations as well: “In my opinion, it would be a mistake to pass up on this opportunity,” or “My own experience suggests we can reach a better deal.”
Two recent studies published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes highlight the importance of carefully crafting both our advice and our requests for advice in negotiation and beyond.
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How Anchors Degrade Advice Quality
In a 2024 study, researchers Jessica A. Reif, Richard P. Larrick, and Jack B. Soll found that when we seek advice from others, the way in which we frame our requests matters. In particular, whether we accompany a question with our own estimate influences the quality of the advice we receive.
The researchers compare the open question, “How long do you think this project will take?” to the same open question accompanied by an anchor, or reference point: “How long do you think this project will take? Do you think eight weeks is enough time?” The first request for advice encourages the adviser to form their own estimate, drawing on their expertise and knowledge. The second request adds the advice solicitor’s own estimate, eight weeks.
This estimate could heavily influence the adviser’s thinking. In seminal research, psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman documented that when making a decision, most of us rely too heavily, or anchor, on the first piece of information offered. As a result of this anchoring effect, those who receive requests for advice may be overly influenced by any piece of information added to an advice request (such as “eight weeks” in the project-management question). Yet, advice tends to be more useful when it is not influenced by the advice seeker’s judgments, as journalist James Surowiecki documents in his book The Wisdom of Crowds.
Nonetheless, Reif and her colleagues found in a search of Reddit posts on personal finance that “people seeking quantitative advice include anchors in their requests between 20% and 50% of the time.” For example, a person who asked about how large of a down payment to make for a car asked whether $4,000 was enough.
Whether people include anchors when asking for advice depends on what’s motivating their request for advice, the researchers found. When their main goal is to appear capable and diligent, they are more likely to include an anchor with their request. When, instead, their goal is to not influence their adviser, they are less likely to include an anchor.
In their research, Reif and her team found that including an anchor in a request for advice does indeed solicit less accurate advice. In particular, advice seekers who offer more extreme anchors receive less accurate estimates than those who provide less extreme anchors, they write.
When asking for advice, how can you signal your competence and diligence without dropping an anchor? By mentioning to the advice giver that you have reached our own estimate but are withholding it so as not to bias their advice. For example, you might say, “I have an idea about how much I should put down for a car, but I’m interested in getting your perspective first.”
Should You Offer Advice or Your Opinion?
In other recent work, researchers Maxim Milyavsky and Yaniv Gvili explored another possible framing effect in the solicitation of advice: specifically, whether it is presented as “advice” or as an “opinion.” They define an opinion as “a judgment, a view, or an appraisal expressed by a person” and advice as “information that is perceived as intended to help an advisee to deal with their issue of deliberation.” Thus, advice tends to be viewed as more altruistic and helpful than opinions.
Given research showing that people tend to place more value on information that demonstrates goodwill, Milyavsky and Gvili predicted that people would give more weight to estimates framed as advice than to estimates framed as opinions. Indeed, that is what they found in five experiments. Participants perceived those who offered advice as more benevolent than those who offered opinions. Consequently, they valued advice more than opinions. In another experiment, participants were more likely to solicit opinions than advice, and they were willing to pay twice as much for advice as for opinions.
The results suggest that when you are trying to persuade an individual or group to take your counsel, you will be more influential if you frame it as advice rather than simply as your personal opinion. For example, a doctor might be able to nudge a patient toward a recommended course of action by offering “advice” rather than their “opinion.” On the flip side, when soliciting help from others, keep in mind that—for better or worse—you may be more receptive to their “advice” than to their “opinions,” even when the feedback is objectively the same.
What other persuasion tactics have you found to be useful when giving or seeking advice from others?
Claim your FREE copy: Negotiation Skills
Build powerful negotiation skills and become a better dealmaker and leader. Download our FREE special report, Negotiation Skills: Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques to Help You Become a Better Negotiator, from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
