Abstract:

This article reviews the research of the relationship between cognition and advice taking in recent years. The advisor, task characteristics and the situation will affect the adoption of advice through the cognitive process of decision maker. Firstly, this article briefly introduced antecedent variables. Based on previous research, we summarized cognitive factors which affect advice taking in four aspects-cognitive style, cognitive complexity, cognitive strategy and emotion. Then we tried to explain the mechanism of advice taking through four theories, which are attitude change theory, construal level theory, embodied cognition theory and cognitive dissonance theory. By analyzing the cognitive factors which mentioned above, we attempted to put forward the comprehensive model of cognitive mechanism. Finally, the article suggests that future research can enrich advice taking in following aspects, the effect of cognitive flexibility of decision makers, the need for cognitive closure on advice adoption and the cognitive mechanism of advice giving.

Key words: advice taking, cognitive mechanism, attitude change theory, construal level theory, embodied cognition theory, cognitive dissonance theory