Expanding Advice Response Theory by Incorporating Goal Inference: College Students’ Perceptions of Parental Exercise Advice

We expanded Advice Response Theory (ART) by proposing that recipient perceptions of advisor characteristics can be distal (e.g., parenting style) and proximal (e.g., goal inference). We examined how the recipient’s inference of the advisor’s goals (confirmation, change, and novelty) mediates associations between distal characteristics and message feature evaluations and outcomes. As predicted, positive associations occurred between perceptions of parenting style, confirmation goal inference, advice efficacy and positive facework, and desirable advice outcomes. Counter to predictions, inferring change and novelty goals did not have uniformly undesirable effects. An inference of the change goal was associated with higher efficacy ratings and the recipient changing plans following the conversation. Our findings support conceptualizing ART advisor characteristics as distal and proximal, and advisor goal inference as a relevant proximal characteristic.