Leiden University Student Repository

Sonneveld, Denise (2025)

The Dynamics of Group Negotiation: Exploring the Impact of Social Motives and Communication Structure in Negotiations

Master thesis | Psychology (MSc)

This master thesis investigated how social motives (prosocial vs. pro-self) and communication medium (headphones vs. no headphones) affect group negotiation outcomes. The study used a 2x2 factorial design with 41 three-person groups (N = 123), who engaged in a structured negotiation task. Hypothesis 1 predicted that prosocial groups would achieve higher joint outcomes than pro-self groups, and results of an ANOVA supported this prediction. Hypotheses 2 and 3, predicting that structured communication, using headphones to manipulate turn-taking behaviour, would improve prosocial and reduce pro-self groups negotiation outcomes, respectively, were not supported by an ANOVA. This suggests that while prosocial motives significantly improve outcomes, structured communication alone does not. Future research should explore additional communication structuring methods and broader contexts to validate these findings.

Author

Sonneveld, Denise

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

Social and Organizational Psychology

Supervisors

Steinel, W.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en