When and Why Do Men Negotiate Assertively? It Depends on Specific Threats to Their Masculinity and the Negotiation Topic

摘要

We elucidate when and why men negotiate assertively. Threatening masculinity should increase men's willingness to negotiate assertively in salary negotiations, which are viewed as masculine, but not in negotiations about flexible working hours, which are viewed as feminine. In two experiments including men from Germany and the United States (U.S.; total N = 1,010), men were either threatened in terms of their masculinity or not. In Study 1, following the threat manipulation, men negotiated either salary or flexible working hours. The results from Study 1 revealed that threatened men (relative to nonthreatened men) reported more ambitious goals, intended to make more ambitious offers, and actually made more ambitious offers, but only when negotiating salary. In Study 2, men always negotiated salary, yet received different kinds of feedback involving threats to their masculinity. The results from Study 2 revealed that threatening feedback based on both men's prescriptions and men's proscriptions (e.g., a lack of assertiveness and pronounced weakness), in particular, led men negotiating salary to report more ambitious goals, intend to make more ambitious offers, and actually to make more ambitious offers. Altogether, our research revealed that men show heightened assertiveness when under a specific threat and negotiating a male-typed topic. An important question for future research is to what extent our findings generalize across different intersecting identities, demographics, and cultures.Public Significance StatementIn high-stakes and everyday negotiations, men often strongly assert themselves-a choice that can affect their own and other people's occupational life (e.g., when negotiating their pay or when representing an organization). Our two experiments illuminated in which situations men are particularly likely to negotiate assertively. Men made ambitious offers especially when they experienced a threat to their masculinity and when negotiating a topic that has a masculine connotation, such as salary (but not flexible working hours).