Advice Response Theory: A Meta-Analytic Review

Since its inception, advice response theory (ART) has generated considerable research on informational support. Because empirical support for the theory is not uniform, we conducted a series of meta-analyses to synthesize existing evidence and evaluate theoretical claims. Consistent with ART, advice message features were positively associated with advice outcomes; however, the associations between provider characteristics and advice outcomes received qualified support. Study artifacts moderated several bivariate associations. Message content influenced implementation intention more strongly than on the other two advice outcomes, whereas provider characteristics and politeness had a greater impact on evaluation of advice quality and facilitation of coping. Finally, we tested the conventional source-message-outcome model of ART and four theoretically-derived alternative models with meta-analytic data. Results suggested neither provider characteristics nor message features are uniformly more proximal causes of variations in the outcomes. Implications for future studies and potential refinements to ART are discussed.