Article

Making a Positive Impression in a Negotiation: Gender Differences in Response to Impression Motivation

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Abstract

Prior research has demonstrated the phenomenon of stereotype reactance, whereby men and women behave in contrast to gender stereotypes, when those stereotypes are activated explicitly (Kray, Thompson, & Galinsky, 2001). The authors propose and present an experiment demonstrating a new mechanism for stereotype reactance—namely, impression motivation, or the degree to which people are motivated to control how others see them (Leary & Kowalski, 1990). Participants randomly assigned to represent either a high‐status recruiter or a low‐status job candidate engaged in a standard employment negotiation simulation. Half the participants were offered an additional incentive to make a positive impression on their negotiation counterparts. As hypothesized, men and women in the high‐status role responded to impression motivation in a manner that contradicted gender stereotypes. Men responded to impression motivation by yielding value to their subordinates, whereas women responded by claiming value for themselves.

Keywords:

• gender,
• negotiation,
• stereotype threat,
• stereotype reactance,
• impression management,
• impression motivation