Negotiator
Bounded Ethicality in Negotiations
Max Bazerman
Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, February 2011, Pages 8-11
Abstract:
Most negotiators think of themselves as good people, and most negotiators act in ethically questionable ways at times. How can these two descriptions be reconciled? This paper follows Bazerman and Tenbrunsel (2011) in arguing that good people often engage in unethical acts without their own awareness of doing so. This paper specifically explores how negotiators may be prejudiced, favor in-groups, and overclaim in negotiation, without knowing that they are doing anything wrong.
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Gert-Jan Lelieveld et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Does it help or hurt to communicate negative emotions in bargaining? In this article, we propose that behavioral effects are dependent on the type of negative emotion that is communicated and whether such emotions are directed at the offer or the person. We show that the two negative emotions anger and disappointment have opposing effects in negotiations: anger pays when it is directed at the offer, but disappointment pays when it is directed at the person. Offer-directed anger elicits higher offers than person-directed anger, because people infer higher limits from opponents who communicate offer-directed anger. Person-directed disappointment elicits higher offers in others than offer-directed disappointment, because it evokes higher feelings of guilt. Our findings thus show that the interpersonal effects of anger and disappointment in negotiation depend critically on the target of the emotion, and that their effects can be explained by different processes.
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Paying a price: Culture, trust, and negotiation consequences
Brian Gunia, Jeanne Brett, Amit Nandkeolyar & Dishan Kamdar
Journal of Applied Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Three studies contrasting Indian and American negotiators tested hypotheses derived from theory proposing why there are cultural differences in trust and how cultural differences in trust influence negotiation strategy. Study 1 (a survey) documented that Indian negotiators trust their counterparts less than American negotiators. Study 2 (a negotiation simulation) linked American and Indian negotiators' self-reported trust and strategy to their insight and joint gains. Study 3 replicated and extended Study 2 using independently coded negotiation strategy data, allowing for stronger causal inference. Overall, the strategy associated with Indian negotiators' reluctance to extend interpersonal (as opposed to institutional) trust produced relatively poor outcomes. Our data support an expanded theoretical model of negotiation, linking culture to trust, strategies, and outcomes.
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"I'm Worth More than That": Trait Positivity Predicts Increased Rejection of Unfair Financial Offers
Barnaby Dunn, Dasha Makarova, David Evans & Luke Clark
PLoS ONE, December 2010, e15095
Abstract:
Humans react strongly to unfairness, sometimes rejecting inequitable proposals even if this sacrifices personal financial gain. Here we explored whether emotional dispositions - trait tendencies to experience positive or negative feelings - shape the rejection of unfair financial offers. Participants played an Ultimatum Game, where the division of a sum of money is proposed and the player can accept or reject this offer. Individuals high in trait positivity and low in trait negativity rejected more unfair offers. These relationships could not be explained by existing accounts which argue that rejection behaviour results from a failure to regulate negative emotions, or serves to arbitrate social relationships and identity. Instead, the relationship between dispositional affect and rejection behaviour may be underpinned by perceived self worth, with those of a positive disposition believing that they are "worth more than that" and those of a negative disposition resigning themselves to "taking the crumbs from under the table".
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Sharing losses and sharing gains: Increased demand for fairness under adversity
Xiaolin Zhou & Yan Wu
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
There is ample experimental evidence showing that people have a strong preference for equity in wealth allocation and social interaction. Although the behavior of gain sharing and responses to (un)fairness in allocation of wealth has been extensively investigated in studies employing economic exchange games, few studies have focused on how people respond to unfair division of loss between individuals. In this study we developed a new variant of the ultimatum game and examined participants' reactions to (un)fairness in both gain and loss sharing. Results from three experiments showed that the rejection rates to unfair offers were generally higher in the loss than in the gain domain. Moreover, participants were inclined to associate loss with "unfair" and gain with "fair", with stronger associations leading to higher rejection rates in the ultimatum game. Furthermore, in subjective rating, unfair offers were perceived as being more unfair in the loss than in the gain domain. These results demonstrate an increased demand for fairness under adversity and the importance of justice in liability sharing.
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Can Observers Predict Trustworthiness?
Michèle Belot, V. Bhaskar & Jeroen van de Ven
Review of Economics and Statistics, forthcoming
Abstract:
We investigate whether experimental subjects can predict behavior in a prisoner's dilemma played on a TV show. Subjects report probabilistic beliefs that a player cooperates, before and after the players communicate. Subjects correctly predict that women and players who make a voluntary promise are more likely to cooperate. They are able to distinguish truth from lies when a player is asked about her intentions by the host. Subjects are to some extent able to predict behavior; their beliefs are 7 percentage points higher for cooperators than for defectors. We also study their Bayesian updating. Beliefs do not satisfy the martingale property and display mean reversion.
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Lex Talionis: Testosterone and the Law of Retaliation
Richard Ronay & Adam Galinsky
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research examining both the organizing and activating effects of testosterone in one-shot bargaining contexts has been vexed by inconsistencies. Some research finds that high testosterone men are more likely to reject unfair offers in an ultimatum game and exogenous administration of testosterone to men leads to less generous offers. In contrast, other research finds that higher prenatal exposure to testosterone predicts more generous dictator game offers and administering testosterone to women leads to more generous ultimatum game offers. The current research examines how the organizing effects of testosterone affect bargaining behavior. Because testosterone is associated with status seeking and concerns with social reputation, we hypothesized that testosterone would predict aggressive bargaining but only after provocation. Two studies found that prenatal testosterone exposure, as measured by 2D:4D ratio, led to aggressive responses for both males and females, but only after they received unfair offers. Furthermore, perceptions of fairness violations moderated but did not mediate the effect of testosterone on retributional responding. These results suggest that that the organizing effects of testosterone have consistent effects on bargaining behavior for both males and females but its predictive ability requires some form of provocation to emerge.
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Fabrizio De Vico Fallani et al.
PLoS ONE, December 2010, e14187
Abstract:
Understanding the neural mechanisms responsible for human social interactions is difficult, since the brain activities of two or more individuals have to be examined simultaneously and correlated with the observed social patterns. We introduce the concept of hyper-brain network, a connectivity pattern representing at once the information flow among the cortical regions of a single brain as well as the relations among the areas of two distinct brains. Graph analysis of hyper-brain networks constructed from the EEG scanning of 26 couples of individuals playing the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma reveals the possibility to predict non-cooperative interactions during the decision-making phase. The hyper-brain networks of two-defector couples have significantly less inter-brain links and overall higher modularity - i.e., the tendency to form two separate subgraphs - than couples playing cooperative or tit-for-tat strategies. The decision to defect can be "read" in advance by evaluating the changes of connectivity pattern in the hyper-brain network.
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How accounts shape lending decisions through fostering perceived trustworthiness
Scott Sonenshein, Michal Herzenstein & Utpal Dholakia
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examine the roles of social accounts in influencing lenders' decisions about loaning money to borrowers. Using field data and a laboratory experiment, we show that lenders will lend money depending on the accounts borrowers tell. In Study 1, field data from a peer-to-peer lending website reveal that two-account combinations (explanation-acknowledgment and explanation-denial) increase the likelihood of favorable lending decisions. A laboratory study helps explain the important role of accounts by unpacking the process of perceived borrower trustworthiness in lending decisions. A final field study assessing the performance of loans 2 years after origination shows that accounts, despite having a positive effect on the loan decision process, negatively predict loan performance. Collectively, the three studies show that accounts facilitate economic exchanges between unacquainted transaction partners because of their role in increasing perceived trustworthiness, but that ironically, accounts can negatively relate to loan performance.
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Can individualists and cooperators play together? The effect of mixed social motives in negotiations
Vidar Schei, Jørn Rognes & Debra Shapiro
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Despite noting the likelihood of dissimilar motives in many transactions, previous negotiation research has focused on negotiations whose participants were similarly motivated (to be cooperative or individualistic). In this paper, we answer recent calls to examine "mixed dyads" (i.e. negotiators with differing social motives) in addition to homogeneous dyads. Our results showed that cooperative - and mixed - dyads both experienced significantly more positive negotiation processes and outcomes than individualistic dyads. We discuss the important roles communication and reciprocity may have in helping individualists and cooperators to reach mutually beneficial agreements.
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When observing gaze shifts of others enhances object desirability
Anouk van der Weiden, Harm Veling & Henk Aarts'
Emotion, December 2010, Pages 939-943
Abstract:
The present research explored when observing gaze shifts of another person, involving both the observer and a specific object, enhances desirability of the gazed-at object. Specifically, we offer an initial attempt to test the idea that a three-step sequence consisting of direct gaze at the observer, followed by object-directed gaze and then by direct gaze at the observer, cues the desirability of an object to the observer and hence increases the perceived desirability of the gazed-at object. We examined this hypothesis in three experiments by manipulating eye-gaze shifts and including a no-gaze control condition. In line with our prediction, results showed that the dynamic sequence of gaze shifts indeed increases perceived object desirability. These findings provide new evidence that a sequence of gaze behavior involving the observer and an object plays an important role in influencing affective evaluation of objects.
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Sujin Lee & Leigh Thompson
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examines how attachment styles affect business negotiations, particularly, impasses that negotiation research has rarely investigated. Extending attachment theory to the managerial principal-agent literature, this paper explains when and why agents effectively negotiate on behalf of their principals. We experimentally primed distinct principal-agent attachments (i.e., secure, anxious, or avoidant). In the simulation, negotiators' underlying interests were incompatible-the negotiation had no actual bargaining zone. However, agents were motivated to reach a deal, which would not be in the best interest of their principals. Agents securely attached to their principals avoided ill-fated deals (at their own expense); whereas agents avoidantly attached were most likely to agree to an ill-fated deal, thereby jeopardizing their principals' interests. An analysis of participants' own descriptions of why they reached such decisions reveals that secure agents negotiated for the best interest of their principals; whereas anxious and avoidant counterparts were oblivious to the principals' underlying interests.
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Do women have longer conversations? Telephone evidence of gendered communication strategies
Guido Friebel & Paul Seabright
Journal of Economic Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We investigate whether there are systematic gender differences in communication behavior by telephone. First, we report a study of anonymized billing records of 3103 subscribers to a large mobile operator in Italy and Greece over two years from 2006 to 2008. Faced with identical tariffs, women make fewer calls than men, and their calls last 16% longer controlling for other factors. Secondly, we report a study of some 92,000 person-days of calls to call center employees of a large consumer services company operator at four sites in Germany. Calls randomly allocated to women last 15% longer than those of men controlling for other factors. There is no evidence, however, that this results in the women being any less effective employees than the men; indeed, in operations involving sales where it is possible to measure productivity by this criterion, female employees make slightly more sales per shift than men. It appears instead to reflect systematic gender differences in communication strategies, though it may reflect also an element of preference by both men and women for speaking to women. The findings of both studies are highly statistically significant and are found across all age groups. The magnitude of gender differences is sensitive to the costs of communication. The results have implications for possible explanations of gender clustering in the labor market.
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Location in negotiation: Is there a home field advantage?
Graham Brown & Markus Baer
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although location is considered to play an important role in negotiation potentially favoring one side over the other, little research has examined whether negotiating on one's home field indeed confers an advantage to the resident party. We tested this possibility by experimentally manipulating participants' occupancy status (resident versus neutral versus visitor). Across three studies, we find that residents of an office space outperform the visiting party in a distributive negotiation. In addition, our results suggest that this performance discrepancy between residents and visitors may be due to both a resident advantage (residents outperforming a neutral party) and a visitor disadvantage (visitors performing worse than a neutral party). Finally, our findings reveal that confidence partially mediates the effects of occupancy status on negotiation performance and demonstrate that an intervention designed to boost visitor confidence can help overcome the home field advantage. Implications of these results for theory and practice are discussed.
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Sherry Xin Li, Kutsal Dogan & Ernan Haruvy
International Journal of Industrial Organization, January 2011, Pages 104-115
Abstract:
We present a laboratory experiment that measures the effects of group identity - one's perceived membership in social groups - on market transactions in an oligopoly market with a few sellers and buyers. We artificially induce group identity using art preferences and college majors in different treatments, respectively. Subjects are randomly assigned into the roles of buyers and sellers and interact repeatedly. We find that the presence of groups influences both the selection of trading partners and the determination of prices. All else equal, sellers are more likely to make offers to ingroup buyers, and the buyers are more likely to accept offers from ingroup sellers. There are considerable intergroup price differentials with the outgroup sellers charging a lower price than the ingroup sellers.