Abstract
Gender differences in negotiation are typically explained by processes that concern women (e.g., women anticipate backlash for assertive behavior). Research has begun to suggest that processes that concern men (e.g., men want to be seen as “real” men) also help to explain gender differences. However, these 2 approaches typically remain disconnected. Thus, we examined both types of processes in 3 studies examining people’s beliefs about the causes of gender differences in negotiation (total N = 931). Our studies showed that people endorsed to a similar, and sometimes even greater, extent processes that concern men as underlying gender differences in negotiation. Moreover, people’s beliefs about the causes of gender differences in negotiation were related to perceptions of the effectiveness of different diversity initiatives (i.e., interventions to reduce inequities) and willingness to support them.
Highlights
A great deal of research has been devoted to the understanding of causes—in other words, underlying processes—of gender differences in negotiation (e.g., Kray et al 2001; Stuhlmacher and Linnabery 2013)
Examining whether women and men differ in their beliefs provides insight into the antecedents of people’s beliefs
Pairwise comparisons with Bonferroni-corrected p values revealed that all 3 processes that concerned women did not differ from each other, just like all 3 processes that concerned men did not differ from each other
Summary
A great deal of research has been devoted to the understanding of causes—in other words, underlying processes—of gender differences in negotiation (e.g., Kray et al 2001; Stuhlmacher and Linnabery 2013). We explore whether men and women have different beliefs about the causes of gender differences in negotiations (see Bosson et al 2021) Certain processes, such as discrimination, can be subtle (Jones et al 2016), so that people who are not subject to such a process (e.g., men) may overlook them (Swim et al 2001; Weaver et al 2010). Women often negotiate less frequently (Kugler et al 2018; Small et al 2007) and less successfully than men (Bowles et al 2005; Mazei et al 2015) These gender differences are typically explained (e.g., Bear and Babcock 2017; Kugler et al 2018) with social role theory (Eagly 1987): people observe that men and women often
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