Thesis of the effect of emotional intelligence on advice utilization

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Strategy Track

Thesis of the Effect of Emotional

Intelligence on Advice Utilization

Student: Bartlomiej Koryga

Supervisor: Dr. A. Alexiev

Statement of Originality

This document is written by Student Bartlomiej Koryga who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document.

I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it.

The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents.

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2 Abstract

Advice Utilization is known to be important for teams to work well. Team leaders have to be adept at giving advice so their subordinates listen to them and use their advice. But how do we choose the right people for the leadership positions? So far, it is clear that highly

confident people are more likely to have their advice utilized. I want to suggest another factor that should be taken into account when employing people as leaders. That factor is Emotional Intelligence. High EI makes people be able to recognize their own emotions and others’. This recognition can be used to guide people’s thinking and behaviour. That is mostly why I think EI assessments should be given to candidates for leaders. My results are not conclusive, but are hinting that there might be truth to my prediction. What is more, in my study only EI showed promise when it comes to being a factor in Advice Utilization, none of the other variables showed any significance.

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Table of Contents

I Introduction ... 4

Research Gap and Question ... 6

Theoretical Relevance ... 7 Practical Relevance ... 8 II Literature Review ... 8 Emotional Intelligence ... 8 Advice utilization ... 12 Summary Table ... 14 III Methodology ... 14

Design of my scale for assessing Advice Utilization... 15

Sample ... 15

Strengths of the Research Design ... 17

Limitations of the Research Design... 17

Variables ... 17

Conceptual Model ... 18

Code Book... 19

Steps taken in the Analysis ... 21

IV Results ... 22

V Discussion... 22

Implications for Theory and Practice ... 23

Limitation and Possibilities of Future Research ... 23

VI Conclusions ... 24

Appendix ... 25

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4 I Introduction

The acceptance of advice by workers in companies is incredibly important. Leaders must be able to give advice in a way which is most likely to be positively received. This effects in leaders being more respected by their inferiors and team members are working together better if they have a person who tells them in what direction they should work. But what makes an advice have more chances of being accepted?

Current research gives lots of answers to the question what influences whether advice will be reject or accepted. But it does not take the Emotional Intelligence (EI) into account which helps in recognizing and using self-emotions to get by better. Everyone has probably seen a mother telling a child to do something to no avail. But when she shouts at him, he then does exactly what the mother says. That is where my idea to take EI into consideration comes from. I think it might play a major role and knowing this could help companies in choosing people for leadership positions.

Along with the human progress there were happening changes in firms’ structures. Companies are no longer small with low number of employees, now they are very complex with many layers and levels (Bartlett & Ghoshal, 1993). This move towards complexity in companies leads to a need for managers to oversee the exchange of information, skills, and knowledge, what is no longer managed by simple exchange of money for goods. Nowadays, firms also provide social community what means that people are not just working to earn money, but they are also socializing, building social ties with others (Kogut & Zander, 1992).

This community is governed by normal human interactions which means that it is important to understand how knowledge is passed from person to person on the most basic

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5 level. The existing research already provides lots of insight into how people perceive advice and what influences the assimilation of information. For instance, we known that confidence plays a major role. The more confident the person is the more chances there are for his/her advice to be utilized (Swol & Sniezek, 2005). These scholars say it is the most important determinant of advice utilization. Other things that have effect on advice utilization are incidental emotions, how different the advice is to what a person is thinking, task difficulty and so on.

I will try to add another determinant of advice utilization. I will try to see whether possessing high emotional intelligence makes for a better advice giver. This will allow managers to better understand social ties in companies and help them choose people who fit best for the leadership positions which should be occupied by people who can get their ideas across. EI is probably the best determinant which differs leaders from managers. When managers want their ideas to be worked on by their inferiors, they just need to use their power gained from being a superior. However, leaders use their social skills to persuade people to go in one direction instead of the other. These skills could deal with the problems I listed before. For instance, I said that if an advice is far different to what a person think he or she should do, then the advice will probably not be taken into account. A person with high EI might be able to deal with it by first realising what the problem is (the difference of opinion) and then try to tell the advice in way that will make the advice receiver feel like it is very close to his/her way of thinking.

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Research Gap and Question

Current research concentrates on what influences advice taking and not how we can manipulate or make sure that the advice is taken seriously. I mentioned before that self-confidence is powerful determinant of advice utilization. I believe that EI could be the root cause of determinants, because for instance, people with high EI could use their emotions to appear more confident. Sometimes we see people who are too eager to do something and it can make us close off to their advice. A person who is aware of being eager might hide this and seem more confident and in the end be more likely have his/her advice utilized. This paper will try to find correlation between people’s EI and their chances of having their advice utilized. Hence, this paper’s research question is:

Are people with high emotional intelligence more likely to have their advice accepted than people with low EI?

To find out the answer I will have to answer smaller questions which will help me in getting the final answer. They are: how often do the managers have their advice utilized compared to not being listened to? Do the managers have their advice utilized only, because they are in charge? If the managers use their hierarchal power to influence people’s decisions then EI might not play a big role.

Upon reading available literature on EI I realised that it might be applied to an area of management. For instance, people’s awareness of others emotions might be used to influence them. Meaning that some people can be better at persuading than others. This knowledge might be useful in professional settings. And that is what I am trying to establish. Hence my hypothesis are:

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7 1. People with high emotional intelligence are more likely to have their advice

accepted.

What is more, I intend to find out whether there is correlation between people’s EI and their confidence. The literature would suggest that there is indeed positive correlation between the two. I think so, because for instance, a person with high EI can become aware of what they are feeling and realise that being confident is just yet another emotion (or lack of insecurity) Thus, my second hypothesis is:

2. There is a positive correlation between people’s confidence and EI.

If proven, this hypothesis might be useful, because it is easier to assess people’s confidence than EI just by talking to them or watching them. Managers could then just employ confident people for the positions requiring people to give advice and they would not need to spend money on testing people’s EI.

Theoretical Relevance

The answer to this question will benefit both the theory and practice. The theoretical understanding will be broadened. This research will give more insight into how people communicate with each other. Specifically, how they influence others’ decisions and how they can change their minds without using unethical techniques like blackmail or threats. My research will be conducted in a professional setting, but should easily be applied to other areas, e.g. informal settings, social gatherings, parties. Emotional intelligence is based on understanding other people and using emotions to guide their decision process. I think EI could also alleviate the problems when an advice is very different to what one is thinking,

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8 because people might make other think that even though an advice is different, the person giving and the person receiving the advice want to accomplish the same thing what should build rapport and make the people feel connected with each other.

Practical Relevance

If proven, the hypothesis will help managers in the hiring process. Managers could hire people with high EI for leadership positions which could lead to better group performance, because, then, a leader would have a better understanding and connection with his/her team. What is more, hiring people with high EI could be beneficial in environment where people have to interact with others frequently. For example social workers should have high EI so they can connect easily with people who need help.

II Literature Review

In my literature review, first I will concentrate on describing what emotional intelligence is and how it affects people. In the second part I will talk about factors which influence how an advice is perceived, whether it will be rejected or not.

Emotional Intelligence

The definition of what the emotional intelligence is, is not well defined yet. Many scholars tried their best at explaining this. The most known researchers are Mayer, DiPaolo, and Salovey (1990) who define EI as the ability to correctly asses and regulate your own and others’ emotions in a way that will improve lives. To put it simply, people with high EI are more aware of what others are feeling and can use this knowledge to make decisions not only based on reason, but also in a way that will make other people feel better. These scholars also

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9 found out that EI is correlated with being able to feel empathy for others. Being empathetic means to be able to feel what another person is feeling (Feshbach & Roe, 1968).

Later, Mayer with Salovey (1997) found out that EI gets bigger with age what might suggest that in jobs which require social interactions it would be wise to have older employees, because there is a bigger chance that they will possess higher EI than their younger competition.

It has been found that EI has a slight correlation with quality of social interactions, meaning that people with high EI are more likely to be better at socializing than people with low EI (Lopes, Salovey, Straus, 2003). Often times, companies might use the Big Five personality traits to assess people’s characters to assess whether a person will fit company’s culture. This test measures openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion,

agreeableness and neuroticism. However, according to Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso, (2008) this test does not give full information about people. Next to this test, EI should be measured independently, because does not matter if a person is emotional or sociable he or she can be aware of people’s emotional states. Although, there is a correlation between one of the Big Five traits (openness) with the EI, it is modest.

Law, Wong and Song (2004) also agree that EI should be separated from traditional personality dimensions. They define EI by giving it four dimensions: being able to

understand self and other’s emotions, regulate one’s emotions and use them. In their research they found that EI is a good predictor of job performance and there is a correlation between EI score and life satisfaction.

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10 George (2000) has a very similar definition of what EI is to Mayer et al and makes a case why EI is crucial for good leadership. He says that leaders with high EI may be aware that their positive moods and emotions can cause them to be too optimistic which can have bad effects, because these leaders might continue with wrong direction despite signs showing that there is no way of generating profits along this path. This awareness can let them think twice about whether their ideas are sound or they might ask someone else for input to make sure they are correct in their reasoning (Mayer et al, 1991). What is more, it was found that positive moods may cause people to be more creative (Isen, Daubman, Nowicki, 1987). This knowledge might be useful to leaders. They could for instance try to achieve happy working environment in places that need creativity, like fast paced technology industries.

In 2004 Mayer, Salovey and Caruso came up with a four branch model to describe EI. It divides EI into four areas: (1) perceiving emotions, (2) using emotions to facilitate thought, (3) understanding emotions, (4) and managing emotions. The first branch is the ability to see and recognize others’ emotions by watching their facial expressions, posture and so on. The second branch is the ability to use emotions in facilitating the thought process. Some

emotions may help in some task. For instance, it was mentioned before that being in good mood makes one more creative. The third branch involves knowing how emotions change over time and what their outcomes may be. Finally, the fourth branch is the ability to change one’s emotions so that one can be, e.g., better at socializing. Mayer et al (2004) also say the people with high EI tend to be more agreeable and have better social interactions, plus they also are less likely to engage in self-harming behaviours like smoking, drinking or violence. Brackett, Mayer, also Warner (2004) found similar correlation between EI and self-harming behaviours. However, they also learned that there is a difference between males and females.

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11 Men are more likely to engage in these behaviours than women provided they score the same on the EI measurements.

Finally, as a side note, it is also worth to note that there is no relationship between IQ and EI (Ciarrochi, Chan, Caputi, 2000). This means that managers have to realise what kind of employees they need and give them a suitable test to see whether they would fit for a

position. A social worker should not be given and IQ test, but rather EI test to ensure that he or she would be good at their job.

Even though, the research about EI is vast, there are people who still do not agree that it is a valid concept. Locke (2005) says that Emotional Intelligence should not be called this way. He backs this up by saying that there are not many kinds of intelligence, and there is just intelligence – the ability to grasp abstractions. In this case we have intelligence applied to a domain of emotions. He continues saying that recognizing emotions is not necessary about being intelligent, but rather a learned skill and people can learn to recognize them, act on them etc. if they just put effort into learning how to do it. Finally, Locke has an issue with the definition of what EI is. He definitely has a point here, because there is vast amount of

research in which EI is defined differently or very broadly what causes confusion and allows EI to encompass lots of variables.

All in all, Lock has good points. His issues are sound. However, whether we call the ability to recognize emotions in others the Emotional Intelligence or Intelligence applied to the domain of Emotions does not change the whole concept. Research can still be done on it and it actually brings a lot to what we know about people’s way of dealing with emotions.

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Advice utilization

By giving advice I mean conveying the message in a way that has the most chances of being used. So in this case ‘advice utilization’ and ‘advice giving’ are very similar terms and are used here interchangeably.

People often ask others for help. They ask peers, supervisors or external companies. Advice giving is not as simple as just giving information. It turns out that there is more to just giving advice than it seems. Pure facts might not be enough to persuade someone to choose one path over another. The manner of giving advice, aside from superiority, has a lot of influence whether advice will be accepted or not.

Incidental emotions which is an emotion induced by a previous event that is irrelevant to the advice from the intermediary may influence how one perceives that advice. Research shows that people will be more receptive to advice if they are in incidental gratitude than if they in their neutral state, and people who are angry, because of past events, will be even less receptive to advice (Gino & Schweitzer, 2008).

How people perceive advice, whether it is useful or not, depends also on the

problem’s difficulty that advice relates to. The more difficult a task is the more chance that the advice will be accepted. So if a task is very simple than the advice will not be as much valued and a person who received the advice will probably stick to his/her own judgement (Gino & Moore, 2007).

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13 Furthermore, people who seek advice are more likely to listen to it and people who receive advice without asking for it will probably not care about it much (Hung & Yoong, 2010).

There is another dimension which has an impact on how the advice is perceived. The person giving advice can also influence how that advice is received. When the advice is given by a confident person than the advice will be more welcome and have higher chances of being taken into account by the person receiving the advice (Swol & Sniezek, 2005). What is more, the advice that is very different to what the person receiving the advice is thinking will cause it to be thought of as much less important.

Finally, people receiving advice are subject to biases causing them to disregard people’s advice. One of them is egocentric bias which makes people believe their own ideas are better than others’ (Krueger, 2003).

To sum up, there are many dimensions which explain how an advice is received. It depends on the person giving the advice, on the person receiving it, and also on a task this advice relates to. The aim of this paper is to find out whether there is a way of controlling how the advice is perceived by using emotional intelligence.

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Summary Table

Emotional Intelligence Advice Utilization

Gets bigger with age Incidental emotion has influence Has a slight correlation with social

interaction

The higher task difficulty the more chance of advice acceptance

Good predictor of job performance

People who ask for advice are more likely to accept it

Good predictor of life satisfaction

Confident advice giver has more chance of his/her advice being accepted

Positive moods bring about creativity

Different opinion of advice giver to advice receiver has negative impact

Positive moods bring about optimism Biases have negative influence People with high EI are more agreeable

Lower EI correlated with self-harming behaviours (men are more likely) No relation between IQ and EI

III Methodology

To find correlation between variables I needed to first have their scores. To measure the impact of each of the variable on advice utilization I conducted a survey among various people in different industries which consisted of four subsets of questions. Each person received Schutte Self-report Emotional Intelligence Test to measure their level of EI. They

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15 also received the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale to measure their confidence which was

established to have a positive effect on advice utilization. This was done so that we could find out if EI was also a factor in advice utilization and our conclusion were not caused by the confidence instead of EI (Tinakon, Nahathai, 2012). The third survey measured advice utilization – this was measured using a Likert scale of my own design.

Design of my scale for assessing Advice Utilization

To design the scale, other students who have knowledge about advice utilization and me came up with a list of possible questions. Then, we all rated each question on a scale of ‘1 – Strongly unfavourable to the concept’ to ‘5 – Strongly favourable to the concept’. After this, we got rid of the worst questions and proceeded with the next step which was making sure the questions would have been understandable by our survey participants. To do that I conducted several unstructured interviews with a couple of groups of 3 or more people. Those people let me know how they feel about particular questions whether the meaning behind them is clear or not. Finally, the list of questions was decreased to a number of 10 (see appendix for an initial list of questions).

Sample

The final sample consisted of 107 people. Their breakdown according to age and education can be seen below.

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16 Final Sample 13-17 18-25 26-34 35-54 55-64 65 More Grand Total Female 3 36 16 11 2 68 Bachelors 15 15 High School 2 13 1 1 17 Masters 5 14 10 2 31 Other 1 3 1 5 Male 20 5 12 1 1 39 Bachelors 7 7 High School 5 2 7 Masters 3 4 10 1 1 19 Other 5 1 6 Grand Total 3 56 21 23 3 1 107

My study focused on the most renowned firms in the world as well as students who aspire to work for them. I chose those companies, because my thesis tries to answer a question whether possessing high emotional intelligence makes you better equipped to give advice and have this advice utilize by a person receiving it. If my hypothesis: high emotional intelligence leads to be a better advice giver, is correct then these companies might be able to incorporate my conclusions into their own environment and their clients. Companies could hire for managerial positions people with high Emotional Intelligence to ensure that their employees listen to them and do as they are asked which would create a good working environment.

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17 I was not allowed to disclose which companies agreed to my research. All I can say is that my survey was, for instance, distributed among some of the big four financial companies.

Strengths of the Research Design

The main strengths of my research design is flexibility, because of the qualitative design I can quickly come up with new surveys to account for variables that were not apparent in the first place. The other strength is that my preliminary results might already be used by companies. For instance, if it does turn out that people with high EI are better at giving advice,

companies might start hiring people who have this characteristic.

Limitations of the Research Design

The main limitation is that employees might be too scared to give honest opinion about themselves even though they will sign confidentiality agreements. What is more, to have good validity this research should be repeated by others, because I have limit time and resources.

Variables

Independent variables:

emotional intelligence level – measured with Schutte Self-report Emotional Intelligence Test confidence – measured with Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale

Dependent variable:

advice utilization – measured with a 10 question Likert scale of my own design

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18 Extraneous variables:

gender, age, education – simple questionnaire

Control variables:

industry – simple questionnaire

Conceptual Model

(Thick arrows – high impact; Thin arrows – low impact)

The conceptual model above shows the predicted outcome of my thesis. I think the Emotional Intelligence should have high impact on the level of Advice Utilization. This is what I think should happen after reading many many books on different topics for instance cognitive science and after watching people in real life. That is why it is really hard to discribe in a few sentences why I think this correlation should exist.

Advice

Utilization

Confidence

Emotional

Intelligence

Age

Gender

Education

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19 Furthermore, the existing research says that Confidence plays a huge role in Advice

Utilization, hence the thick arrow pointing from it. In many societies, higher education, age and gender are associated with wisdom. I wanted to check if this would hold true in this case. However, according to the already available research the correlation with Advice Utilizaiton should be low (hence the thin arrows).

Code Book

Variable Items Measurement

Scale

Source

Confidence (1)I feel that I’m a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others.

(2) I feel that I have a number of good qualities. (3) All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure. (4) I am able to do things as well as most other people. (5) I feel I do not have much to be proud of. (6) I take a positive attitude toward myself. (7) On the whole, I am satisfied with myself. (8) I wish I could have more respect for myself. (9) I certainly feel useless at times.

(10) At times I think I am no good at all.

5 Point Likert Scale (some of the questions here are inverted so people do not choose strongly agree everywhere) Robins, R. W., Hendin, H. M., & Trzesniewski, K. H. (2001). Measuring global self-esteem: Construct validation of a single-item measure and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 27(2), 151-161. Emotional Intelligence

(1) I know when to speak about my personal problems to others. (2) When I am faced with obstacles, I remember times I faced similar obstacles and overcame them.

(3) I expect that I will do well on most things I try.

5 Point Likert Scale Schutte, N. S., Malouff, J. M., & Bhullar, N.

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(4) Other people find it easy to confide in me.

(5) I find it hard to understand the non-verbal messages of other people. (6) Some of the major events of my life have led me to re-evaluate what is important and not important.

(7) When my mood changes, I see new possibilities.

(8) Emotions are one of the things that make my life worth living. (9) I am aware of my emotions as I experience them.

(10) I expect good things to happen. (11) I like to share my emotions with others.

(12) When I experience a positive emotion, I know how to make it last. (13) I arrange events others enjoy.

(14) I seek out activities that make me happy.

(15) I am aware of the non-verbal messages I send to others. (16) I present myself in a way that makes a good impression on others. (17) When I am in a positive mood, solving problems is easy for me. (18) By looking at their facial expressions, I recognize the emotions people are experiencing.

(19) I know why my emotions change.

(20) When I am in a positive mood, I am able to come up with new ideas. (21) I have control over my emotions.

(22) I easily recognize my emotions as I experience them.

(23) I motivate myself by imagining a good outcome to tasks I take on. (24) I compliment others when they have done something well. (25) I am aware of the non-verbal messages other people send. (26) When another person tells me about an important event in his or her life, I almost feel as though I experienced this event myself.

(27) When I feel a change in emotions, I tend to come up with new ideas. (28) When I am faced with a challenge, I give up because I believe I will fail.

(29) I know what other people are feeling just by looking at them. (30) I help other people feel better when they are down.

(31) I use good moods to help myself keep trying in the face of obstacles. (32) I can tell how people are feeling by listening to the tone of their voice. (33) It is difficult for me to understand why people feel the way they do.

(2009). The assessing emotions scale. In Assessing emotional intelligence (pp. 119-134). Springer US. (manuscript version) Advice Utilization

(1) Other people seriously consider my advice when they need to make a decision.

(2) I think I am better than others at having my advice taken into account. (3) People often listen and use my advice even though I am not an expert on a topic.

(4) When people receive my advice they are very likely to follow it.

5 Point Likert Scale (some questions are inverted)

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(5) People do not want to listen to my advice, because they think it’s not going to be good.

(6) I have never had trouble persuading people.

(7) People more often come to me to use my advice than to others. (8) I don’t have to use my power to have my advice utilized.

(9) I often hear people saying they should come to me if they need advice that they can use.

(10) Only my subordinates use my advice.

Industry Industry _{1 – Education}

2 – Financial Services

3 – Manufacturing N/A

Gender Male or Female _{1 – Male}

2 – Female

N/A

Age Choose your age bracket _{1 – 18-22}

2 – 23-26 3 – 27-30 4 – 31-39 5 – 40-99

N/A

Education Level of Education obtained _{1 – High School}

2 – Bachelors 3 – Masters 4 – PhD 5 – Other

N/A

Steps taken in the Analysis

First, the data from questionnaires had to be downloaded from an online survey system. Then, using excel the data was cleared of any errors. For instance, some participants started the questionnaire but never finished it. After having a good data set, some questions from the survey had to be inverted so the final score could be easily counted.

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22 The next big step was to find correlation between variables. Minitab software was used to do that.

IV Results

Confidence does not predict Advice Utilization very well, R squared value was only 7% with p-value of 0.006.

Emotional Intelligence had a bit better result with R squared of 32% and p-value of 0.000 One-way ANOVA was used to see whether any of the categorical variables had an effect on Advice Utilization. Highest achieved education had no significant effect with p-value of 0.709 and R-sq 1.33%. With p-value of 0.391, whether a person is a student or working also did not have any effect. Similarly, age with p-value of 0.858 has no bearing on Advice Utilization. However, gender seems to be significant with p-value of 0.005, but the mean differences are within one standard deviation (Female Mean: 36.412, Male: 33.256, Female StdDev: 5.201, Male: 5.915).

V Discussion

Results point towards first hypothesis being true. People do seem to have higher Advice Utilization the higher their Emotional Intelligence is. The results are not as good as they could be though which means there is a need for further research being done on a bigger sample to be sure the results gathered here are actually correct.

Furthermore, other researchers have found out that confidence plays a big role in Advice Utilization. This effect has not been noticed here. Again, this might be a problem of

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23 having a too small sample with subjects that are very similar to each other. For instance, many of the respondents have similar background and work in the same field.

Some researchers also suggested that Emotional Intelligence gets bigger with age. This effect could not be seen in this research because the sample included mostly people from the 18-25 age group.

Implications for Theory and Practice

Emotional Intelligence being a factor in Advice Utilization should be crucial in further research. Right now, Advice Utilization is not very well understood and any new information in that regard may be important and should be taken into account, because when it comes to human mind a lot of variables come into play and even the smallest things might be

significant.

Practise can benefit from this research in a way that was described earlier on.

Companies, mainly the ones in services industry, can use this new information to design new recruiting strategies to ensure employment of people who are good at having their advice utilized.

Limitation and Possibilities of Future Research

The main concern here is the sample size and its lack of uniformity. The sample consisted of students and working people who were mostly young. Because of that, there was no good way of checking if EI, Confidence and AU differences can be correlated with age, education, gender and so on.

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24 Another big concern is that the scale for assessing Advice Utilization was designed just for the purpose of this research which means that its reliability is not yet fully known. Other researchers might take this scale and try to find out if it really works.

Further research could concentrate on checking one variable and collecting a sample according to what the variable is, instead of trying to find out some information about all the variables.

VI Conclusions

My research set out to look for another variable which influences Advice Utilization. In the end, this research hints that Emotional Intelligence indeed may be key factor.

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25 Appendix

Questions deleted by my colleagues and me Questions that were not suitable after conducting interviews

Final questions with improved wording

(1) Having my advice utilized is what I strive for. (2) Learning to have my advice utilized is very easy for me.

(3) The way I speak guarantees my advice will be utilized most of the time.

(4) I can adjust my advice in a way that will make it utilized.

(5) When I feel optimistic I can see people use my advice more often.

(6) When I am anxious people tend not to do as I tell them to.

(7) My colleagues do as I say, because I only provide good information.

(8) Others tell me my advice is good. (9) If I do not know the answer I tell people that without hiding.

(10) I do not lie when giving advice.

(11) I think some people could use some boost to confidence when giving advice.

(1) People often do things the way I tell them to. (2) My peers use my advice even though they are equal to me.

(3) My boss uses my advice more often than others’.

(4) When colleagues ask for my advice they often use it.

(5) I can tell people what to do in a way that will make them listen to me.

(6) Persuading people is easy for me. (7) I know which tone of my voice to use to influence people’s decisions.

(8) I often have my advice utilized, because I can read the room.

(9) I always tailor the way I speak to have higher chances of having my advice utilized. (10) I can see people use my advice instead of others’.

(11) The way I give advice is a conscious choice and I can see that it works.

(12) Older people than me take my advice seriously.

(13) Giving advice is not a problem for me, because I can see people put it to use. (14) My advice is used most of the time. (15) I can see that people use my advice. (16) I can persuade people easily.

(17) After being asked for advice people go and do as I said immediately.

(18) Everyone uses my advice even the professionals.

(1) Other people seriously consider my advice when they need to make a decision. (2) I think I am better than others at having my advice taken into account.

(3) People often listen and use my advice even though I am not an expert on a topic.

(4) When people receive my advice they are very likely to follow it.

(5) People want to listen to my advice, because they think it’s going to be good.

(6) I have never had trouble persuading people. (7) People more often come to me to use my advice than to others.

(8) I don’t have to use my power to have my advice utilized.

(9) I often hear people saying they should come to me if they need advice that they can use. (10) Only my inferiors use my advice (inverted).

Respons eID

Gen der Age

Student/Wo

rking Working Industry

Educati on Confidence Score EI Score AU Score 1 Fem

ale 18-25 Student Bachelors 26 115 36 2

Fem

ale 18-25 Student Masters 37 146 43 3 Male 18-25 Student Bachelors 26 137 29 4 Male 18-25 Working Professional, scientific or technical services Masters 50 126 35 5

Fem

ale 18-25 Student High School 37 143 36 6 Male 26-34 Student Masters 31 116 33 7 Male 18-25 Student Masters 38 126 35 8 Male 18-25 Student Other 35 132 30 9 Male 18-25 Working Other services (expect public administration) Bachelors 37 140 29 10 Male 35-54 Working Wholesale/Retail Trade Masters 47 135 33 11

Fem

ale 35-54 Working Real estate or rental and leasing Masters 50 142 50 12

Fem

ale 18-25 Student Real estate or rental and leasing Bachelors 42 123 35 15

Fem

ale 26-34 Working Real estate or rental and leasing Masters 42 130 36 16 Male 35-54 Working Real estate or rental and leasing Masters 35 118 37 17 Male 35-54 Working Real estate or rental and leasing Masters 10 138 42 18

Fem

ale 26-34 Working Real estate or rental and leasing High School 44 158 40 19 Male 18-25 Student Professional, scientific or technical services Masters 32 97 22 20

Fem

(26)

26

21 Fem

ale 26-34 Working Other services (expect public administration) Masters 46 160 40 22

Fem

ale 18-25 Student Finance or Insurance Bachelors 41 136 37 23

Fem

ale 18-25 Student Other 50 147 32 24

Fem

ale 18-25 Student High School 44 147 40 26

Fem

ale 18-25 Working Management of companies or enterprises High School 34 142 36 28

Fem

ale 26-34 Student Real estate or rental and leasing Masters 50 141 24 29

Fem

ale 18-25 Student Real estate or rental and leasing Masters 40 126 33 30

Fem

ale 18-25 Student Health care or social assistance Bachelors 40 130 35 34 Male 18-25 Both Other services (expect public administration) High School 46 135 36 35 Male 18-25 Student Bachelors 39 126 38 36

Fem

ale 18-25 Working Retail Trade High School 36 130 39 38

Fem

ale 26-34 Working

Construction/Professional, scientific or technical

services/Admin, support, wast Masters 38 147 39 40

Fem

ale 13-17 Student Other 20 104 32 41 Male 26-34 Working Finance or Insurance Masters 41 119 37 42 Male 26-34 Working Real estate or rental and leasing Other 47 136 41 43

Fem

ale 35-54 Working Real estate or rental and leasing Masters 32 121 30 45 Male 35-54 Working Real estate or rental and leasing Masters 35 116 26 46

Fem

ale 35-54 Working

Admin, support, waste management or remediation

services Masters 38 122 32 47 Male 35-54 Working Construction/Real estate or rental and leasing Masters 36 115 30 48

Fem

ale 26-34 Working Management of companies or enterprises Masters 32 132 40 49

Fem

ale 26-34 Working

services Masters 45 156 36 50

Fem

ale 26-34 Working Other services (expect public administration) Masters 50 158 50 51

Fem

ale 26-34 Working Real estate or rental and leasing Masters 45 137 33 52 Male 35-54 Working Wholesale/Retail Trade Masters 44 133 39 53 Male 35-54 Working Construction High School 27 115 17 54

Fem

ale 35-54 Working Real estate or rental and leasing Masters 49 150 43 55 Male 35-54 Working Retail Trade Masters 42 110 25 56 Male 35-54 Working Construction Masters 40 118 32 57

Fem

ale 26-34 Working Real estate or rental and leasing Masters 45 135 33 58 Male 35-54 Working Wholesale Trade High School 47 118 31

(27)

27

59 Fem

Fem

ale 18-25 Working Real estate or rental and leasing Bachelors 45 140 36 61

Fem

ale 35-54 Working Real estate or rental and leasing Masters 38 127 36 63 Male 26-34 Working Other services (expect public administration) Masters 39 131 39 64

Fem

ale 55-64 Working

Fem

ale 35-54 Working

services Masters 44 148 34 66 Male 35-54 Working Professional, scientific or technical services Masters 37 110 34 67

Fem

ale 35-54 Working Wholesale/Retail Trade High School 41 133 41 69 Male 55-64 Working

services Masters 38 148 38 70 Male 18-25 Student Bachelors 46 147 32 71

Fem

ale 18-25 Working Accommodation or food services High School 39 154 41 72 Male 18-25 Student Bachelors 34 118 36 73

Fem

ale 18-25 Student Other 41 161 40 74 Male 18-25 Student High School 31 113 22 75 Male 18-25 Working Educational services Bachelors 40 130 38 76

Fem

ale 18-25 Student Bachelors 43 126 32 78 Male 18-25 Student High School 40 108 25 79

Fem

ale 18-25 Student High School 31 120 39 81 Male 18-25 Student Bachelors 47 131 33 82

Fem

ale 18-25 Student High School 42 140 35 85 Male 18-25 Student Other 42 126 34 86 Male 18-25 Student Other 45 129 30 87 Male 18-25 Student Other 48 130 36 88 Male 18-25 Working Retail Trade High School 42 151 43 89 Male

65

More Working Mining Masters 37 115 38 90 Male 18-25 Student Other 18 106 30 91

Fem

ale 18-25 Working Construction Bachelors 46 165 38 92

Fem

ale 18-25 Student Bachelors 32 119 31 93 Male 18-25 Working Construction High School 30 123 37 94

Fem

ale 18-25 Working Construction Bachelors 45 139 36 95

Fem

ale 18-25 Student Other 43 133 35 96

Fem

ale 35-54 Working

Fem

(28)

28

98 Fem

ale 18-25 Working Professional, scientific or technical services Masters 30 96 29 99 Male 26-34 Working Construction Masters 40 137 33 100

Fem

ale 55-64 Working

Fem

ale 35-54 Working

services Masters 44 127 29 102 Male 35-54 Working Wholesale/Retail Trade Masters 50 125 42 103

Fem

ale 26-34 Working Management of companies or enterprises Other 40 137 30 105

Fem

ale 18-25 Working Real estate or rental and leasing Masters 46 129 33

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