Age Differences in Negotiations: Older Adults Achieve Poorer Joint Outcomes in Integrative Negotiations

In integrative as opposed to distributive negotiations, the interests of the negotiation partners can be simultaneously realized to some degree, which results in higher individual as well as joint outcomes. Perspective taking is important to detect and tap into this integrative potential. In negotiations, priority-related information exchange can be seen as a behavioral consequence of perspective taking. Based on findings on the development of perspective taking across the life span, we tested the hypothesis that there are age differences in integrative negotiations. In 2 quasi-experimental studies (Study 1 and 2), participants worked in face-to-face interacting dyads on an apartment rental negotiation. In Study 3, participants read a negotiation transcript that contained all priority-related information. Our results consistently revealed that younger dyads (17-35 years) achieved significantly higher joint outcomes than older dyads (65- 85 years; in Study 1 and 2) or age-heterogeneous dyads (in Study 1) and that younger participants proposed more integrative agreements (in Study 3). Differences between younger and older dyads were mediated via information exchange about the negotiation partners' different priorities (Study 2) and via the extraction of relevant information about underlying different priorities (Study 3).