The influence of secrecy on advice taking: A self-protection perspective

Secrecy has been found to increase conformity, indicating its implication for advice-taking. Based on self-protection perspective, across six studies, the present research explores secrecy’s influence on advice taking and examines the mediation of the self-protection motivation to avoid social attention and the moderation of evaluation sensitivity and importance of secrets. Study1a and Study 1b show that decision-makers with secret(s) are more likely to take advice, and motivation to avoid social attention plays a mediating role. Study 2a and 2b demonstrate that judges with high evaluation sensitivity are more likely to take advice, and evaluation sensitivity also moderated the effect of secrecy on motivation to avoid social attention and on advice taking. Study 3a and 3b demonstrate the moderating effect of secret importance; judges with secrets of high importance are more likely to take the advice, and the importance of secrets as a moderator in the effect of secrecy on motivation to avoid social attention and on advice taking.