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DOI: 10.1177/0146167204274099 © 2005 Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc. Its a Bet! A Problem-Solving Approach Promotes the Construction of Contingent AgreementsUniversity of California-Berkeley
Northwestern University
Duke University Negotiators often have different expectations about the future. A contingent agreement, or a bet that makes the ultimate outcome dependent on some future event, builds on negotiators differences. The authors argue that a problem-solving approach, in which negotiators thorougly explore options to build on their differences, is most likely to construct contingent agreements. The authors explore two factors expected to influence this problem-solving approach, namely, negotiators relational and accountability concerns. The authors argue when these considerations are imbalanced, negotiators are less likely to adopt a problem-solving style and construct a contingent agreement. To test this hypothesis, negotiators relationships and accountability pressures were manipulated in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants engaged in an integrative negotiation, allowing the authors to examine whether a contingent agreement was constructed and joint gain. Experiment 2 sought to replicate and extend the findings of Experiment 1 using a scenario study. Results across the two experiments support the authors hypotheses.
Key Words: integrative negotiations relationships accountability contingent agreements expectations joint gain
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