How Cat-Behavior Advisors Can Improve Clients' Willingness to Adopt their Advice: An Investigation of Advice Severity, Advisor Credibility, and Clients' Self-Identity.
- Resource Type
- Academic Journal
- Authors
- van Leeuwen E; Department of social, economic, and organisational psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.; Ter Mors E; Department of social, economic, and organisational psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.; Stolting M; Department of social, economic, and organisational psychology Kattengedragsadviesbureau (Cat-Behavior Consultancy), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
- Source
- Publisher: Informa Healthcare Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 9804404 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1532-7604 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 10888705 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Appl Anim Welf Sci Subsets: MEDLINE
- Subject
- Language
- English
Feline behavioral problems can be treated successfully by good advice from cat-behavior advisors, but guardians often do not comply with their advice. An experimental survey under 703 cat guardians was used to investigate what advisors can do to increase their clients' compliance with environmental enrichment advice. By systematically varying the credibility of the advisor and the severity of their advice, the hypothesis was confirmed that highly credible advisors elicit more positive attitudes and compliance intentions than less credible advisors. Also as expected, mild advice resulted in stronger compliance intentions than severe advice because guardians believed they were better able to incorporate the required actions. Finally, guardians who more strongly thought of themselves as cat guardians were more likely to adopt the advice because they believed that other cat guardians would do the same. The investigation of factors that can increase cat guardians' compliance with advisors' recommendations for the treatment of behavioral problems is crucial because the wellbeing of domestic cats lies in the hands of their guardians. Several practical recommendations for cat-behavior advisors are offered.