NCJ Number
110845
Date Published
1987
Length
43 pages
Annotation
Two studies were conducted to examine the relationship between negotiators' perceptions of one another and negotiation success in a two-party integrative negotiation task.
Abstract
In the first study, it was found that negotiators expected payoffs to be zero-sum rather than variable-sum; negotiators became more accurate in their perceptions of the other party during the course of negotiation; and negotiators who viewed the task as a zero-sum game earned lower negotiation profits than did negotiators who accurately perceived the task as a variable-sum game. Also, negotiators who viewed the task as a zero-sum game were more 'loss averse' than were negotiators who viewed the task as a variable-sum game. Experimental manipulation of negotiators' preceptions of the other party demonstrated a causal relationship between task perceptions and negotiation outcomes. In the second study, negotiation experience was manipulated and it was found that experienced negotiators tended to reach higher jount outcomes than did novice negotiators. Negotiators' judgments of the other party's payoffs were positively related in negotiation pairs in which both parties were novices. The results are discussed in terms of cognitive biases in judgment, bias as a social influence process, and implications for methods to decrease negotiator bias and increase negotiation outcomes. 3 tables, 4 footnotes, and approximately 65 references. (Author abstract modified)