[1] In this case, a friend or family member may subtly provide advice in an indirect manner as a means to preserve the recipient's self-esteem or to defer his or her attention from a stressful situation.
[6][7][8] The knowledge of receiving help may come at a cost with decreased feelings of self-esteem and self-efficacy, because it increases recipients' awareness towards their personal difficulties to manage stressors.
[9] People's well-intentioned support attempts may also be miscarried, and their efforts could either fail or even worsen the situation for a person under stress.
From a cost-benefit point of view, invisible support would be optimal for the recipient because the benefits of provision are accrued while the costs of receipt are avoided.
[1] The first investigation of invisible support involved a couples study in which one member was preparing for the New York State Bar Exam.
To investigate this idea, a recent study in 2013 compared the short-term and long-term effects of visible and invisible support reception during romantic couples' discussions of each partner's personal goal.
On the other hand, while invisible support tends to go unnoticed by recipients, it seems to play an integral role in the long-term success of goal-maintenance.
The effects for invisible instrumental support told a different story, where providers who reported high relationship satisfaction were unaffected, but providers who reported low relationship satisfaction were negatively affected by their acts of invisible instrumental support with an increase in negative mood.