Are Women More Likely to be Misled and Deceived Than Men in Negotiations?
Women buy 54% of the cars in the United States, and influence 84% of all vehicle purchase decisions (Nolo), yet many women dread the car buying experience because they feel that they get ignored, patronized or just plain ripped off at car dealerships. But does this really happen? Dr. Laura J. Kray and colleagues at University of California, Berkeley conducted a study to see whether under the same conditions women would be lied to more, finding that women are indeed lied to and deceived more often than men.In this study, 298 MBA students engaged in a real-estate negotiation where the “sellers” were instructed to sell the property to a reputable buyer who would use it for residential purpose and the “buyers” were told that they represent a client that intends to build a commercial high-rise hotel that caters to tourists. Buyers were then faced with the decision whether to be truthful or lie about their clients’ true intentions commercial property use.
The results showed that women were seen as easier to mislead and they were blatantly lied to 27% of the time when men were lied to only 8% of the time. Both male and female buyers lied to female sellers much more than to male sellers. Conversely, the true intention to use the property commercially was revealed 37% of the time to male sellers, but only 17% of the time to female sellers.
And it gets worse. Because women sellers were deceived more often, they reached more agreements with buyers and entered into more deals under false pretenses than men sellers. While they may have felt good about these “successes,” reaching an agreement was actually a bad deal for the sellers, given the buyer’s true intentions.
Undoubtedly, gender stereotypes suggesting women are easier to mislead confront women with negotiating hurdles. Dismantling such stereotypes would take time, unfortunately, but we can start by showing confidence and letting the counterpart know that you are knowledgeable, asking questions and scrutinizing terms throughout the process. Such behaviors would not only show your counterpart that you are well informed, and therefore cannot be taken advantage of, but also challenge and disconfirm the stereotypes that women are more gullible and easily misled. So, if you have the opportunity to deceive women, think again.
Kray, L. J., Kennedy, J. A., & Van Zant, A.B. (2014). Not competent enough to know the difference? Gender stereotypes about women’s ease of being misled predict negotiator deception. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 125, 61-72.