Abstract
The present study aims for a better understanding of how individuals’ behavior in monetary price negotiations differs from their behavior in bartering situations. Two contrasting hypotheses were derived from endowment theory and current negotiation research to examine whether negotiators are more susceptible to anchoring in price negotiations versus in bartering transactions. In addition, past research found that cues of coldness enhance cognitive control and reduce anchoring effects. We attempted to replicate these coldness findings for price anchors in a distributive negotiations scenario and to illuminate the potential interplay of coldness priming with a price versus bartering manipulation. Participants (N = 219) were recruited for a 2 × 2 between-subjects negotiation experiment manipulating (1) monetary focus and (2) temperature priming. Our data show a higher anchoring susceptibility in price negotiations than in bartering transactions. Despite a successful priming manipulation check, coldness priming did not affect participants’ anchoring susceptibility (nor interact with the price/bartering manipulation). Our findings improve our theoretical understanding of how the focus on negotiation resources frames economic transactions as either unidirectional or bidirectional, and how this focus shapes parties’ susceptibility to the anchoring bias and negotiation behavior. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Highlights
Venezuela currently faces one of the worst economic crisis in decades (Cerra, 2017)
How do the outcomes from bartering negotiations differ from typical deals that involve money? The present research examines how economic behavior is affected by the characteristics of resources around which an economic transaction can revolve
As shown by Majer et al (2018), the focus on one resource triggered by procedural framing – for instance: “I offer my X for your Y” versus “I request your Y for my X” – can lead to a lower anchor susceptibility in negotiators. It follows from this literature and these findings that, in an economic transaction, parties in possession of a commodity may experience an endowment effect and should be more concession averse and less prone to be anchored than participants in a price negotiation (H1b). We examined these two competing predictions and we tested whether being in possession of money reduced anchoring susceptibility when compared with being in the possession of an item in a bartering negotiation
Summary
Venezuela currently faces one of the worst economic crisis in decades (Cerra, 2017). Trust in a currency can drastically drop to the point of hyperinflation. In Caracas – Venezuela’s capital – people have started to barter and trade their goods over Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. A kilo of pasta is exchanged for a packet of diapers (Fishwick, 2016). Money is not regarded as a reliable store of value anymore, economic exchange occurs via bartering. How do the outcomes from bartering negotiations differ from typical deals that involve money? The present research examines how economic behavior is affected by the characteristics of resources around which an economic transaction can revolve (i.e., money in price negotiation versus commodities in bartering) How do the outcomes from bartering negotiations differ from typical deals that involve money? The present research examines how economic behavior is affected by the characteristics of resources around which an economic transaction can revolve (i.e., money in price negotiation versus commodities in bartering)
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