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87 Marq. L. Rev. 753 (2003-2004)
Perceptions of Fairness in Negotiation

handle is hein.journals/marqlr87 and id is 763 raw text is: PERCEPTIONS OF FAIRNESS IN NEGOTIATION NANCY A. WELSH* 1. INTRODUCTION Often, when people negotiate, their goal is to win. At the very least, people work to achieve outcomes (or allocations of value) that they can call fair, and particularly fair enough to me! We all know people (including ourselves) who have offered more than was necessary in negotiation sessions or rejected offers even though they made economic sense. These behaviors, which have been replicated by researchers in experiments involving ultimatum games,' seem irrational but can be explained by examining fairness perceptions. Negotiators rely upon their perceptions of distributive and procedural fairness in making offers and demands, reacting to the offers and demands of others, and deciding whether to reach an agreement or end negotiations. Because fairness perceptions are so significant in understanding . Associate Professor of Law, The Dickinson School of Law of The Pennsylvania State University. J.D. Harvard Law School; B.A., magna cum laude, Allegheny College. The author is grateful to Christopher Honeyman, Janice Nadler, Kevin Gibson, Marcia Caton Campbell, and David Sally for their comments on a previous draft. 1. In these games, Player 1 is given a fixed sum of money and instructed to divide the money in any way he chooses with Player 2. If Player 2 accepts the offer, both players will receive their designated allocations. If Player 2 rejects the offer, neither player will receive anything. Economic models indicate that Player 1 should offer only slightly more than zero to Player 2, and Player 2 should accept this amount as an improvement on his status quo. Instead, Player I generally offers 30-50% of the sum to Player 2. Twenty percent of those playing Player 2, meanwhile, reject profitable offers to take zero instead. See Max H. Bazerman & Margaret A. Neale, The Role of Fairness Considerations and Relationships in a Judgmental Perspective of Negotiation, in BARRIERS TO CONFLICT RESOLUTION 90-91 (Kenneth Arrow et al. eds., 1995). Some commentators argue that negotiators are motivated less by a desire to be fair than by self-interest or a strong aversion to being disadvantaged themselves. Madan M. Pilluta & J. Keith Murnighan, Fairness in B gaining, 16 SOC. JUST. RESEARCH 241 (2003) (arguing, based on a review of empirical research, that negotiators' behaviors that produce fair results are motivated less by a commitment to fairness than by self-interest and considerations of social utility); see E. Fehr & S. Gachter, Altruistic Punishment in Humans, 415 NATURE 137 (2002); Andrew Oswald & Daniel Zizzo, Are People Willing to Pay to Reduce Others' Incomes?, ANNALES D'ECONOMIE ET DE STATISTIQUE, July/December 2001, at 39. Apparently, the aversion to being disadvantaged (or envy principle) affects other animal species as well. See Sarah F. Brosnan & Frans B.M. de Waal, Monkeys Reject Unequal Pay, 425 NATURE 297 (2003) (reporting that high percentages of capuchin monkeys rejected the opportunity to trade rocks for cucumber slices when they saw other monkeys receiving grapes-which were perceived as more desirable-either in exchange for their rocks or without being required to exchange anything).

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