Purpose: To avoid (costly) conflict, it is imperative to uncover when negotiators cooperate. The previous study has shown that negotiators’ cooperative or competitive behavior is oftentimes guided by cues about their counterpart; information about his/her traits or behavior. Using regulatory focus theory, this paper aims to investigate when this is likely to happen. The authors hypothesize and test that because prevention focus (rather than promotion focus) is associated with concerns for safety and concrete surroundings, it strengthens the impact of counterpart cues. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used two scenario studies and one behavioral negotiation study to test the general hypothesis. The authors measured or manipulated participants’ regulatory focus, manipulated counterpart cues by varying the information negotiators received about their counterpart’s traits and behavior, and measured participants’ cooperative or competitive concession making behavior. Findings: Results from the studies confirmed that under prevention focus, negotiators’ cooperative behavior depended on whether they received cooperative versus competitive counterpart cues more than under promotion focus. Furthermore, results also showed that under prevention focus, negotiators’ behavior was relatively unaffected by their own social motivation – i.e. their personal goal to obtain favorable outcomes for oneself or for both negotiation parties. Originality/value: By showing that regulatory focus determines when counterpart cues affect negotiation behavior, this paper furthers the understanding of when contextual factors affect negotiators' behavior. In addition, it contributes to the understanding of the complex effects of prevention focus in interpersonal behavior.

中文翻译：

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当有关对方的信息很重要时

目的：为了避免（代价高昂的）冲突，当谈判人员进行合作时必须揭露。先前的研究表明，谈判者的合作或竞争行为通常是由有关对方的线索来指导的。有关他/她的特质或行为的信息。本文使用监管焦点理论，旨在研究这种情况何时可能发生。作者进行了假设和检验，因为预防重点（而不是促进重点）与对安全和具体环境的关注相关，所以它会增强相应提示的影响。设计/方法/方法：作者使用两个方案研究和一个行为协商研究来检验一般假设。作者衡量或操纵了参与者的监管重点，通过改变谈判代表收到的有关对方特征和行为的信息来操纵对方的线索，并衡量参与者的合作或竞争性让步行为。结果：研究结果证实，在预防重点下，谈判者的合作行为取决于他们是否比合作重点更多地接受了合作还是竞争对方线索。此外，结果还表明，在预防重点下，谈判者的行为相对不受其自身社会动机的影响，即他们为自己或双方谈判方获得有利结果的个人目标。独创性/价值：通过显示监管重点确定对应线索何时会影响谈判行为，本文进一步了解了上下文因素何时影响谈判者的行为。此外，它有助于理解预防重点在人际交往行为中的复杂作用。