Effects of trust, aspiration, and gender on negotiation tactics.

Used 60 male and 60 female undergraduates in same sex dyads to study the effects of trust (defined as belief that the other negotiator is cooperatively motivated), aspirations, and gender on the conditions and processes leading to outcomes that jointly benefit both parties. Under high aspirations, high trust produced self-consciously cooperative behavior in the form of direct information exchange; low trust produced self-consciously distributive (competitive) behavior and one form of indirect information exchange. A correlational analysis showed that joint benefit was a positive function of a set of trial and error tactics and 2 forms of indirect information exchange, a negative function of the use of distributive tactics, and unrelated to direct information exchange. Joint benefit was greater under higher aspirations but was not a function of trust or the interaction between trust and aspirations. Women engaged in less distributive behavior and were less interested in the task than men, especially under high aspirations. A theory of strategic choice is presented to explain the findings. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)