Gender Differences in Negotiation – An Exploration in Virtual Reality

Last registered on March 23, 2019

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Gender Differences in Negotiation – An Exploration in Virtual Reality

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0003996

Initial registration date

March 13, 2019

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

March 23, 2019, 8:04 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

North America

Primary Investigator

Name

Gwendolin B. Sajons

Affiliation

University of Basel

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Catherine H. Tinsley

PI Affiliation

Georgetown University

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2019-03-18

End date

2019-04-05

Keywords

Gender, Labor, Other

Additional Keywords

Negotiation, Skills, Discrimination, Experiment, Virtual Reality

JEL code(s)

J16, J24, J71, C81, C72, C91

Secondary IDs

Abstract

Prior research has suggested gender differences in negotiation outcomes, particularly when parties are advocating for themselves in a distributive negotiation context. On average, male negotiators walk away with significantly more value than female negotiators. Two possible explanations for this phenomenon have been suggested. On the one hand, women may behave differently (e.g., less assertively) in negotiations and thus obtain inferior outcomes. On the other hand, negotiators may behave differently (e.g., more assertively) towards women, leading to inferior outcomes for them. To parse out these explanations we conduct an experiment in virtual reality. Participants are assigned avatars of their true or the other gender, while assuming that they and their negotiation partner are in fact represented by an avatar of their true gender. This allows exploring gender differences in own behavior and in the other party’s behavior towards each gender. Behavioral differences will be tracked all along the negotiation process (initial offers, concession rate, negotiation outcomes).

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Sajons, Gwendolin B. and Catherine H. Tinsley. 2019. "Gender Differences in Negotiation – An Exploration in Virtual Reality." AEA RCT Registry. March 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3996-1.0

Former Citation

Sajons, Gwendolin B. and Catherine H. Tinsley. 2019. "Gender Differences in Negotiation – An Exploration in Virtual Reality." AEA RCT Registry. March 23. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3996/history/43914

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2019-03-18

Intervention End Date

2019-04-05

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Initial offer, concession speed, emotional expressions used, negotiation outcome

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Perceptions of own and other’s negotiation style and satisfaction with negotiation outcome, willingness to negotiate with counterpart again, perceptions of negotiation partner following the gender prescriptions in Amanatullah & Tinsley (2013)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We will conduct a laboratory experiment with about 400 student participants at Georgetown University from March 18th to April 5th 2019. Students participate for course credit and will additionally earn money as a function of their negotiation performance.

In the experiment, participants will be randomly assigned to take the role of a seller (group A) or a buyer (group B) of an antique sugar bowl. Each participant negotiates through a virtual character with another student whom they meet at a negotiation table in a virtual room. Participants communicate via a chat function. Before entering the virtual reality, we ask participants to “indicate” which of a set of ten virtual characters resembles them most. While participants will likely assume that they are represented by this avatar in the negotiation, this will not be the case – an obfuscation necessary to be able to disentangle outcomes related to “true” gender (own behavior) and “displayed” gender (others’ behavior). Participants do not see their own avatar as they operate in a “1st person mode” (looking out of the eyes of their avatar).

In the negotiation, participants will be represented by an avatar we assign them out of a set of three male and three female avatars. In particular, everyone in the role of the seller (group A) will randomly be assigned an avatar of their true gender. Participants in the role of the buyer (group B) will be randomly assigned an avatar of their true or the other gender. As a result, within group B there will be four conditions: 1) true and avatar gender male, 2) true and avatar gender female, 3) true gender male and avatar gender female, and 4) true gender female and avatar gender male.

The experimental set-up will allow us to explore gender differences in own behavior (i.e., behavior of male versus female participants) and in the other party’s behavior towards each gender (i.e., behavior towards participants represented by male versus female avatars). Additionally, the negotiation outcomes of the buyers (group B) allow investigating which share of the difference between men and women in negotiation outcomes stems from each gender’s own behavior versus the other party’s behavior towards each gender.

Finally, in a pre-screen survey and a post-experimental questionnaire we will collect data on possible underlying factors that may lead to gender differences in negotiation such as inequality aversion or participant perceptions of their negotiation counterpart in terms of gender prescriptions. We will use these for exploratory analysis.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomized using Microsoft Excel.

Randomization Unit

Participants within experimental session

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

Sample size: planned number of observations

about 400 participants (dependent on student show-up)

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Participants will be evenly divided into group A (sellers) and group B (buyers).

Within group A, we aim at two groups of approximately 100 observations each:
A1: true gender female, avatar gender female
A2: true gender male, avatar gender male

Within group B, we aim at four groups of approximately 50 observations each:
B1: true gender female, avatar gender female
B2: true gender male, avatar gender male
B3: true gender female, avatar gender male
B4: true gender male, avatar gender female

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB