People with dark personalities more likely to use unethical tactics in negotiations

A new study has found that individuals with dark personality traits are more inclined to use inappropriate strategies when negotiating. This tendency is amplified in situations where they perceive less dependence on the other party and stand to gain significant personal benefits. However, the researchers also discovered that an individual’s concern for maintaining relationships can somewhat lessen the likelihood of resorting to these unethical tactics. The findings were published in Personality and Individual Differences.

Negotiation is a regular part of professional life, from discussing project goals with colleagues to setting salaries with new employees. In these situations, people often balance their own interests with the need to be fair to others. Unfortunately, research shows that individuals frequently resort to unethical tactics to get ahead. These tactics can include aggressive bargaining, making promises they don’t intend to keep, misrepresenting facts, manipulating someone’s professional network, and even secretly gathering information to use as leverage. While we know personality and situational factors can influence these behaviors, there is still much to learn about which specific personality traits and situations are most influential, and how they interact.

To address this gap, researchers investigated the role of what they termed the “dark core” of personality. This concept describes a basic tendency in people to cause problems for others to achieve their own aims, while also justifying their actions. The dark core encompasses a range of negative traits such as manipulation, psychopathy, narcissism, greed, sadism, spitefulness, amorality, egoism, feeling entitled, lacking moral restraint, and self-centeredness. The researchers wanted to see how this dark core, combined with different work situations, might affect the use of inappropriate negotiation strategies.

The study was conducted in two parts. The first part examined personality traits and individual tendencies. Researchers recruited 283 managers working in India. These managers completed questionnaires designed to measure their dark core personality traits, their relational interdependent self-construal (how much they value and consider their relationships with others), and their self-reported use of inappropriate negotiation strategies. The relational interdependent self-construal measures how much people are motivated to build close relationships and consider the impact of their actions on others. The questionnaire on negotiation strategies assessed five types of unethical tactics: competitive bargaining, false promises, misrepresentation of facts, attacking someone’s professional network, and gathering inappropriate information.

The managers completed the questionnaires in two separate sessions, spaced three weeks apart, to reduce the possibility of biased answers. They were assured their responses would be anonymous and used for research purposes only. To match responses from the two sessions, participants created a personal code. Any responses without matching codes were discarded to ensure data accuracy.

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The second part of the study shifted to situational factors and involved 221 postgraduate business students in India. These students participated in a controlled experiment designed as a “dictator game.” In this game, students were placed in the role of a supervisor negotiating with a subordinate. The experiment was designed to manipulate two situational variables: interdependence and incentives.

Interdependence was varied at three levels: low, medium, and high. Low interdependence meant the supervisor and subordinate were portrayed as having little impact on each other’s future. High interdependence suggested their roles were closely linked, and their future success was reliant on each other. Incentives were also manipulated at three levels: 30%, 60%, and 90%. These percentages represented the potential increase in earnings the supervisor could gain by using inappropriate negotiation strategies. For each combination of interdependence and incentive level, the students were asked to rate how likely they would be to use unethical tactics to increase their earnings.

The students were presented with nine different scenarios, each representing a unique combination of interdependence and incentive level. They indicated their likelihood of using inappropriate negotiation strategies on a six-point scale, ranging from “highly unlikely” to “strongly likely.” Before the experiment, students were informed about the different types of unethical negotiation strategies, the interdependence conditions, and the incentive structures. They were also assured of anonymity and given the option to withdraw from the study at any time.

The results of the first study revealed a significant link between the dark core personality traits and the use of unethical negotiation strategies. Managers who scored higher on the dark core scale were more likely to report using all five types of inappropriate negotiation tactics. Interestingly, relational interdependent self-construal played a mediating role. This means that while the dark core traits increased the likelihood of using unethical strategies, this effect was somewhat lessened by an individual’s stronger sense of relational interdependence. In other words, people with dark core traits who also valued relationships were less likely to act unethically compared to those with dark core traits who did not value relationships as much.

The second study confirmed that situational factors significantly influence the endorsement of unethical negotiation strategies. When interdependence was low, meaning the negotiators were less reliant on each other for future success, individuals were more likely to endorse using inappropriate tactics, especially when incentives were high. As interdependence increased, the likelihood of endorsing unethical strategies decreased. Furthermore, higher incentives consistently led to a greater willingness to use unethical tactics, regardless of the level of interdependence.

The researchers also examined the interaction between personality and situation. They found that the dark core personality traits interacted with both interdependence and incentives. For individuals with higher dark core scores, the level of interdependence had a less pronounced effect on their likelihood of using unethical strategies, particularly when incentives were high. In high incentive scenarios, those with dark core traits were willing to employ unethical tactics even when interdependence was medium or high, indicating that the lure of personal gain could override relational concerns for these individuals.

The study’s authors noted some limitations. Firstly, the dictator game design in the second study only looked at one-sided actions. Real negotiations are interactive, involving responses and reactions from both sides. Future research could use more complex negotiation games involving multiple rounds and interactions. Secondly, the negotiation task focused solely on dividing a fixed resource. Future studies could explore situations where cooperation could increase the overall value for both parties, and see if dark core individuals are still as likely to be unethical in these scenarios.

The study, “When the dark one negotiates: Sacrificing relations at the altar of money,” was authored by Sujit Sekhar and Nishant Uppal.