This blog reports our take in research in social psychology with special emphasis on the international review of social psychology. To stay tuned on what happens on the blogosphere, this blog also reviews and broadcasts few of the most relevant articles published on other social psychology blogs!

Jan 17, 2017

Women’s performance at the bargaining table: Why stereotypically feminine negotiation topics may act against women



     A widespread stereotype about women is that they are less performant at the bargaining table than men. For example, when it comes to vehicle purchases, popular wisdom suggests that women should be accompanied by a man at the concession so that they can be ‘taken seriously’ and can make a good deal. Indeed, the study of Ayres & Siegelman (1995) showed that car dealers offered women significantly higher initial and final prices than men, although the negotiators (men and women) used exactly the same scripted negotiation strategies. This shows that negotiation outcomes vary by gender in part because negotiation partners are influenced by expectations about the opponent. But, even assuming that they were not, women are still likely to be disadvantaged (compared to men) at the bargaining table because negotiation partners are also influenced by expectations about themselves—which, in this case, does not help women. Here, the widespread stereotype about women’inferior negotiating ability may affect women themselves through a process called “stereotype threat” (Steele & Aronson, 1995). This phenomenon refers to the risk of confirming a negative stereotype about a stigmatized group due to awareness of the stereotype itself. As a woman, being aware that women are generally not considered as effective negotiators (less than men anyway) can increase performance impairment, even if the woman does not personally adhere to this stereotype.


Source: shutterstock

If this gender gap at the bargaining table seems deeply ingrained in the societal gender roles, one can wonder if such a phenomenon can be reduced (or even reversed) when the topic of the negotiation is typically feminine. Indeed, would a woman feel more expert and comfortable when negotiating feminine topics (compared to gender neutral ones), which would lead her to achieve better performances than men in these circumstances? Or would she perform worse in stereotypically feminine negotiations than in neutral ones? To examine this question, Demoulin and Teixeira (2016) designed an experiment, published in the International Review of Social Psychology, to analyze gender effects in negotiations involving typically female-related topics.


Gender effects in traditionally feminine negotiation tasks


        Fictitious negotiations were organized between a man and a woman who did not live in the same house and who were not in a romantic relationship with each other. For the stereotypically feminine condition, the authors used data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) regarding “Time used for work, care and daily household chores”—which revealed an asymmetry between men and women. Indeed, among the 18 founding countries of the OECD, women spend on average 15.8% of their time on household chores compared to 8% for men. In this case, participants had to imagine that they lived together with their negotiation partner. The negotiation consisted in sharing household duties. In the « gender-neutral » condition, participants had to imagine that they lived together with their negotiation partner and were part of the same association. The negotiation consisted in sharing the different tasks related to the organization of a debate for this association. A pre-negotiation questionnaire assessed first-offer intentions, participants’ aspirations and limits, and perceptions of the negotiation. Then, participants were given 10 minutes to negotiate with each other. Finally, participants filled a post-negotiation questionnaire designed to assess objective outcomes, satisfaction with the process and results, self- and other-stereotypes of warmth and competence, and demographics. The results showed that women had lower aspirations when negotiating a feminine topic, and consequently, were less performant than both men, and women who negotiated in the gender-neutral condition. In both negotiation contexts, women perceived their masculine negotiation partners as more competent than themselves, and perceived themselves as warmer than their partners (this was not observed for men).


Source: shutterstock


Gender gap in negotiation outcomes: Gender-specific social and psychological barriers


        Rather than an innate incapacity, women’s worse negotiation outcomes are largely attributable to a set of gender-specific psychosocial barriers. Indeed, according to the authors, the “feminine” negotiation topic would implicitly activate gender stereotypes—especially as the topic of household duties is likely to highlight gender discrepancies—and, in line with the stereotype threat phenomenon, generate performance impairment for women. Overall, this study leads us to consider the impact of gender differences and inequities that sustain institutionalized social practices: Gender is likely to affect how negotiators behave at the bargaining table. Ultimately, a negative stereotype regarding negotiation skills of women may impact negotiation over pay, workplace conditions, work-life balance, access to promotion, and can keep them from reaching leadership positions. Very concretely, the gender gap in negotiation may in part explain why women in the United States earned only about 77.4% of men’s median annual earnings in 2011, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. The same goes in France: According to INSEE in 2013, at equal age, activity area, job and conditions of employment, men still earn 10% more than women.

Source: shutterstock    
References:


Ayres, I., & Siegelman, P. (1995). Race and gender discrimination in bargaining for a new car. The American Economic Review, 304-321.
Demoulin, S., & Teixeira, C. (2016). “I Do the Dishes; You Mow the Lawn”: Gender Effects in Stereotypically Feminine Negotiation Tasks. International Review of Social Psychology / Revue Internationale de Psychologie Sociale29(1). 
Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology69(5), 797.

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To know more about Wage differentials between men and women in France: 
http://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2015/09/22/salaires-les-ecarts-hommes-femmes-se-reduisent-sauf-pour-les-hauts-revenus_4767045_4355770. Html # 2ul2mAekdViXWi70.99

Related Topics published in the IRSP:
Find the special issue of the IRSP on “Stereotype threat in children: Past and present” on Cairn at: http://www.cairn.info/revue-internationale-de-psychologie-sociale-2014-3.htm

Download the article of Demoulin & Teixeira from the link: 

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