Enhancing Consultation by Matching the Consultee's Perspectives

A concern in consultation is the consultee's failure to implement an intervention due to the intervention's lack of acceptability. This study investigated a consultation technique designed to increase the acceptability of an intervention. It was hypothesized that intervention acceptability would be increased by using individualized intervention rationales that match the consultee's perceptions. Matched rationales were congruent with perceptions that consultees expressed about themselves, the target problem, and their theory. Three rationale conditions were used: matching the consultee's perceptions, mismatching the perceptions, or using no rationale. The results suggested that a matching rationale was associated with greater acceptance of the intervention than was a mismatched rationale.