Women in business negotiations face more deceit than men, according to new research.
In a to be published in , researchers found that women are usually at a disadvantage during negotiations.
鈥淲e found that men and women alike were targeting women with more deception than men,鈥� said , assistant professor of management at and co-author of the new research. 鈥淚t was interesting that men and women alike tried to deceive women in negotiations.鈥�
Low expectations for women
Low expectations for a negotiator鈥檚 competence drove deceptive intent. Perceptions of 鈥渨armth鈥� 聽鈥撀� or likability 鈥� reduced deceptive intent, even though warm negotiators were perceived as easier to mislead.
In one of the studies, MBA students held mock real estate negotiations where it was left to the buyer whether to reveal that the 鈥渞eal鈥� intention for the use of the land in question contradicted the seller鈥檚 wishes. Buyers admitted to being deceitful to 22 percent of female sellers, compared to 5 percent of male sellers.
Further investigation found that the deceptions were crimes of opportunity. Women at the negotiating table were perceived as easier to deceive than men, so therefore standards of propriety slipped as the fear of being caught dissipated.
鈥淭wo experiments were simple scenario studies where we put people in a hypothetical situation where they imagined they had something to sell,鈥� Kennedy said. 鈥淭hen we manipulated only the name of the potential buyer. [rquote]We measured a number of different things, and what kept popping up is people expected women to be easier to mislead than men.[/rquote]”
Whether the gender stereotype of women being easier to mislead is accurate is an open question, Kennedy said.
鈥淢en and women alike are poor at detecting deception,鈥� she said. 鈥淧ast work has established that women are better at decoding nonverbal cues than men, though no better at catching a liar.鈥�
Upset the stereotype
Kennedy said women can try to upset the stereotypes to combat this form of discrimination.
鈥淪tereotypes are difficult to disconfirm, but I think we can train women to exhibit characteristics in negotiations that suggest they鈥檙e not at all easy to mislead,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f we have women persistently questioning information, asking for verification from multiple sources, writing critical things in contracts and signaling a willingness to retaliate to deception, I think that should help to disconfirm this stereotype.鈥�
Kennedy conducted the research with , holder of the Warren E. and Carol Spieker Chair in Leadership at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, and Alex Van Zandt, a Ph.D candidate at Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.