What's Sex Got to Do with It? Questioning Research on Gender &amp; Negotiation

Schneider, Andrea

doi:10.1002/alt.21873

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…With regard to potential gender differences (Hinshaw and Alberts 2012; Schneider 2019), female lawyers reported higher levels of moral character than did male lawyers ( r = 0.19, p = 0.006), which replicates existing research documenting gender differences in moral character (e.g., Cohen et al 2014b). Female lawyers did not, however, significantly differ from male lawyers in their willingness to disclose honest information in any of the three vignettes ( p s > 0.15).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 78%

Honesty Among Lawyers: Moral Character, Game Framing, and Honest Disclosures in Negotiations

Cohen¹,

Helzer²,

Creo³

2022

Negotiation Journal

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Lawyers have broad discretion in deciding how honestly to behave when negotiating. We propose that lawyers’ choices about whether to disclose information to correct misimpressions by opposing counsel are guided by their moral character and their cognitive framing of negotiation. To investigate this possibility, we surveyed 215 lawyers from across the United States, examining the degree to which honest disclosure is associated with lawyers’ moral character and their tendency to frame negotiation in game‐like terms—a construal of negotiation that we label game framing. We hypothesize that the more that lawyers view negotiation through a game frame—that is, the more they view negotiation as an adversarial context with arbitrary and artificial rules—the less honest they will be in situations in which honest disclosure is not mandated by professional rules of conduct. We further hypothesize that lawyers with higher levels of moral character will apply a game frame to negotiation to a lesser degree than will lawyers with lower levels of moral character, and that honesty when negotiating will be higher when lawyers have higher versus lower levels of moral character. Our study results support these hypotheses. This work suggests that focusing on game‐like aspects of negotiation can induce a less moral and ethical mindset. To the extent that teaching law students to “think like a lawyer” encourages them to adopt a game frame of negotiation, we can expect such training to reduce the likelihood of honest disclosure.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 78%