How Cat-Behavior Advisors Can Improve Clients' Willingness to Adopt their Advice: An Investigation of Advice Severity, Advisor Credibility, and Clients' Self-Identity

An experimental survey under 703 cat guardians was used to investigate what advisors can do to increase their clients’ compliance with environ- mental 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 inten- tions 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 treat- ment of behavioral problems is crucial because the wellbeing of domestic cats lies in the hands of their guardians.