CULTURAL STEREOTYPES AND THE NEED FOR COGNITIVE CLOSURE IN INTERCULTURAL NEGOTIATIONS

Abstract

At the negotiation table, does culture matter? As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, this question has important implications. Following previous research on stereotyping, stereotypes on cultures may affect the behaviour of participants in an intercultural negotiation, and the effect was hypothesized to be exacerbated by situation induced Need for Cognitive Closure (NFC). A total of 117 participants participated in a negotiation exercise with a counterpart whom they believed was from another culture. Unexpectedly, the results showed that individuals who held more cultural stereotypes and were under time pressure performed best in the intercultural negotiation exercise. The surprising results may contribute to the research in distributive intercultural negotiations with respect to the effect of cultural stereotypes and NFC. Overall, this study demonstrates the importance of understanding the role stereotypes play in intercultural negotiations.