Participants who were asked for advice reported that they would be more likely to ask their partner for advice on a similar task in the future.
As we found in follow-up studies, a request for advice flatters the advisor and increases her self-confidence, which in turn boosts her positive perceptions of the advice seeker.
The self-identified non-experts were perplexed by these advice requests and viewed the advice seeker as less competent for asking for their help.
In a final study, even asking for advice on a very easy task-though it did not increase judgments of competence-did not harm evaluations either.