What marks the transition from novice to expert?

Novices focus on positive feedback (“good job!”) because hearing they’re doing well helps them stay committed. Experts focus on negative feedback (“You’re doing that incorrectly”) because they’re interested in progress.

As people go from novice to expert their focus shifts:

A large proportion of marketing communication concerns feedback to consumers. This article explores what feedback people seek and respond to. We predict and find a shift from positive to negative feedback as people gain expertise. We document this shift in a variety of domains including feedback on language acquisition, pursuit of environmental causes, and use of consumer products. Across these domains, novices sought and responded to positive feedback, and experts sought and responded to negative feedback. We examine a motivational account for the shift in feedback: positive feedback increased novices’ commitment and negative feedback increased experts’ sense that they were making insufficient progress.

Source: “Tell Me What I Did Wrong: Experts Seek and Respond to Negative Feedback” from Journal of Consumer Research

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