Thinking of Others: How Perspective Taking Changes Negotiators' Aspirations and Fairness Perceptions as a Function of Negotiator Relationships

Abstract

The current research investigates two factors that might moderate the effects of competitive demands and biased fairness perceptions on conflict resolution: the relationship between the negotiators and perspective taking. In an experiment, we found that negotiators in a positive relationship were more self-serving in aspirations and fairness judgments than negotiators in a negative relationship. Furthermore, we found support for a social-motive priming hypothesis, which predicts that the relationship between negotiators will significantly impact the effects of perspective taking on aspirations and fairness judgments. Finally, we found that discrepancies in fairness judgments significantly predicted conflict delay in positive relationships but not in negative relationships where differences in aspirations played a larger role, thereby lending support to past researchers' findings that fairness considerations figure larger in negotiations involving a positive relationship between negotiators whereas equity considerations figure larger in negotiations involving a negative relationship between negotiators.