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Asking for Advice Makes You Seem More Competent, Not Less

posted by janrinok on Monday August 25 2014, @09:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the unfortunately-I-cannot-appear-to-be-less-competent dept.

AnonTechie writes:

You hear a lot about fears of heights or spiders or clowns, but down deep, most people are most afraid of this one thing: sounding dumb. New research shows that people shy away from asking for help for fear of appearing less competent, but that this is an unfounded fear: Asking for advice actually makes you seem more capable.

Across five studies, a research team led by Harvard Business School’s Alison Wood Brooks finds that people think better of others when they ask for advice — mostly because people really love to give advice. Being asked for advice seems to give us a self-confidence boost, which in turn enhances our opinion of the advice-seeker, Brooks and colleagues write in the paper, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Management Science.

[Paper] (PDF)

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 26 2014, @05:09PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 26 2014, @05:09PM (#85800)

    I agree. Capable people usually don't mind saying they don't understand, presumably because it's unusual. It's the ones that stand there nodding and never asking questions you've got to worry about.

    I guess it really sort of depends. Asking the right question can make you seem very perceptive and even knowledgeable. On the other hand, asking a question that reveals you did not do your homework ahead of time can make you look incompetent. The people standing there nodding likely know well the maxim "better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, rather than open your mouth and dispel all doubt". Yeah, I have learned this the hard way....