Article

Negotiating Through the Night: How Sleep Deprivation Can Affect Negotiation Outcomes

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Abstract

Sleep deprivation is highly prevalent in negotiations, but little is known about, how sleep deprivation may affect negotiations. We present a theoretical framework for understanding and investigating effects of sleep deprivation on a range of negotiation processes and outcomes, particularly joint economic outcomes, individual economic outcomes, social perceptions and emotions, perceived conflict, and impasses. With an emphasis on integrative negotiations, we identified cognitive capacities and epistemic motivation to be highly relevant psychological processes affected by sleep deprivation in negotiations, as these impairments hamper effective information exchange and downregulate or bias information processing. This, in turn, reduces the quality of (integrative) agreements. We discuss potential moderators on the task, the individual, and the inter-individual level and show how sleep deprivation-induced impairments can be compensated for. In sum, our analysis advances understanding of how and when sleep deprivation might have an effect on negotiation outcomes.

Keywords: sleep deprivation, negotiation, epistemic motivation, cognitive capacity, joint outcomes, compensation

How to Cite:

Häusser, J. A., Halfmann, E. & Hüffmeier, J., (2022) “Negotiating Through the Night: How Sleep Deprivation Can Affect Negotiation Outcomes”, Negotiation and Conflict Management Research 16(2), 189-210. doi: https://doi.org/10.34891/2022.575

Funding

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (HA6455/4-2)