NEW YORK, May 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Soon after the
world watched Kim Jong-un and
Moon Jae-in initiate talks during a
historic peace summit, critics began questioning the sincerity of
the North Korean leader's commitment to denuclearize. Recent
headlines have only intensified those doubts. This negotiation
took place on a global stage, but the question it highlights is a
common one: to what extent can you trust that your partner is being
honest in a negotiation? And while being dishonest in the course of
a negotiation has traditionally been associated with greed or other
personality traits, new research from Columbia
Business School reveals that the best predictor of a
deceptive negotiator is how he or she views the values of the
person across from them.
In "From belief to deceit: How expectancies about others' ethics
shape deception in negotiations," published this month in the
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Columbia Business School's Malia Mason, Elizabeth
Wiley and Daniel Ames
consider how a person's behavior in the course of a negotiation is
influenced by their expectations and misperceptions of others'
morals, even more so than their own personal beliefs.
"Negotiators often use deception in pursuit of personal gains,
but our research unveils another motivation," said Malia Mason, Associate Professor of Management
at Columbia Business School. "We find
that negotiators tend to be pessimistic about other peoples'
ethical standards. This view about how other people are likely to
act often leads negotiators to deceive, regardless of their own
moral view."
The 'Paranoid Cynics'
In a four-part study, the researchers move beyond the
traditional portrait of the deceptive negotiator as simply a
calculating schemer, and test to what extent the negotiator's
choice to deceive is shaped by the expectation that his or her
deal-making partner might embrace deceptive tactics. Their study
finds evidence of widespread pessimism – with negotiators
consistently overestimating the prevalence of people who embrace
deceptive tactics. This phenomenon extends beyond Americans, with
similar findings for Chinese students and Turkish adults.
"We call these negotiators the 'paranoid cynics' because they
are drawn into deception not so much because of their own appetites
but because of their read – or potential misread – of what others
are like," said Daniel Ames, Ting
Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Professor of Business at Columbia Business School.
The results suggest that, while cynicism varies from one person
to the next, some highly cynical people might be more inclined to
lie because they sense that everyone else is doing it.
These findings have important implications for anyone at the
negotiating table because they illustrate how even people who
consider lying morally wrong play a role in perpetuating the
duplicitous behavior they expect from others.
"Our work shows how the changing social context of trust can
flow into negotiations – and can sometimes become self-fulfilling,"
said Ames.
Tips to Defeat Deceit at the Negotiating Table
Deal-makers may be able to combat deception by focusing more
energy on getting their counterparts to trust them and less time on
assessing the trustworthiness of others. The researchers suggest
looking for opportunities to be transparent and share some
information with counterparts. By doing so, there is a chance they
reciprocate, and you could work your way to greater mutual
trust.
In addition to building rapport and developing trust,
negotiators may also be able to mitigate deceptive behavior by
signaling that it is counter-normative. According to the
researchers, people are far less likely to behave deceptively when
they think such behavior is uncommon.
"Our findings leave us optimistic that dishonesty can be reduced
by addressing the pessimistic beliefs people have about others'
willingness to embrace deceptive tactics," said Mason.
To learn more about the cutting-edge research being conducted at
Columbia Business School, please visit
www.gsb.columbia.edu.
About Columbia Business
School
Columbia Business School is the only
world-class, Ivy League business
school that delivers a learning experience where academic
excellence meets with real-time exposure to the pulse of global
business. Led by Dean Glenn Hubbard,
the School's transformative curriculum bridges academic theory with
unparalleled exposure to real world business practice, equipping
students with an entrepreneurial mindset that allows them to
recognize, capture, and create opportunity in any business
environment. The thought leadership of the School's faculty and
staff, combined with the accomplishments of its distinguished
alumni and position in the center of global business, means that
the School's efforts have an immediate, measurable impact on the
forces shaping business every day. To learn more about Columbia Business School's position at the very
center of business, please visit www.gsb.columbia.edu.
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SOURCE Columbia Business School