IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ororsc/v34y2023i2p935-958.html

What’s Race Got to Do with It? The Interactive Effect of Race and Gender on Negotiation Offers and Outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Angelica Leigh

    (Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708)

  • Sreedhari D. Desai

    (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599)

Abstract

Research suggests that women negotiators tend to obtain worse outcomes than men; however, we argue this finding does not apply to all women. Integrating research on social hierarchies, gender in negotiations, and intersectional stereotype content, we develop a theoretical framework that explains the interactive effect of race and gender on offers and outcomes received in distributive negotiations. With a focus on Black and White women and men negotiators, we predicted that stereotypes related to their race and gender lead Black women negotiators to receive more favorable negotiation offers and outcomes than White women and Black men negotiators and this effect is explained by ascriptions of dominance and prestige, respectively. Results of three experimental studies involving diverse samples—online panel participants, individuals selling items on Craigslist, and MBA students—support these predictions. More specifically, we find that Black women negotiators are perceived as more dominant than White women negotiators, and Black women negotiators are ascribed greater prestige than Black men negotiators. These ascriptions allow Black women negotiators to receive more favorable negotiation offers and outcomes compared with White women and Black men. These findings highlight the importance of jointly considering the influence of race and gender in negotiations.

Suggested Citation

  • Angelica Leigh & Sreedhari D. Desai, 2023. "What’s Race Got to Do with It? The Interactive Effect of Race and Gender on Negotiation Offers and Outcomes," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(2), pages 935-958, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:34:y:2023:i:2:p:935-958
    DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2022.1629
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.1629
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/orsc.2022.1629?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fragale, Alison R., 2006. "The power of powerless speech: The effects of speech style and task interdependence on status conferral," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 101(2), pages 243-261, November.
    2. Kray, Laura J. & Galinsky, Adam D. & Thompson, Leigh, 2002. "Reversing the Gender Gap in Negotiations: An Exploration of Stereotype Regeneration," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 386-410, March.
    3. Northcraft, Gregory B. & Neale, Margaret A., 1987. "Experts, amateurs, and real estate: An anchoring-and-adjustment perspective on property pricing decisions," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 84-97, February.
    4. Hilty, John A. & Carnevale, Peter J., 1993. "Black-Hat/White-Hat Strategy in Bilateral Negotiation," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 444-469, August.
    5. Bowles, Hannah Riley & Babcock, Linda & Lai, Lei, 2007. "Social incentives for gender differences in the propensity to initiate negotiations: Sometimes it does hurt to ask," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 84-103, May.
    6. Acolin, Arthur & Bostic, Raphael & Painter, Gary, 2016. "A field study of rental market discrimination across origins in France," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 49-63.
    7. Rosseel, Yves, 2012. "lavaan: An R Package for Structural Equation Modeling," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 48(i02).
    8. Kray, Laura J. & Kennedy, Jessica A. & Van Zant, Alex B., 2014. "Not competent enough to know the difference? Gender stereotypes about women’s ease of being misled predict negotiator deception," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 125(2), pages 61-72.
    9. Wolf, Elizabeth Baily & Lee, Jooa Julia & Sah, Sunita & Brooks, Alison Wood, 2016. "Managing perceptions of distress at work: Reframing emotion as passion," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 1-12.
    10. Shirako, Aiwa & Kilduff, Gavin J. & Kray, Laura J., 2015. "Is there a place for sympathy in negotiation? Finding strength in weakness," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 95-109.
    11. Bowles, Hannah Riley & Babcock, Linda & McGinn, Kathleen L., 2005. "Constraints and Triggers: Situational Mechanics of Gender in Negotiation," Working Paper Series rwp05-051, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lee, Alice J. & Ames, Daniel R., 2025. "When sellers care about caretakers: Seller attachment shapes who gets to the bargaining table," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    2. Aaron Anglin & Garry D. Bruton & Marcin Bielicki, 2025. "No Credit for Success, Penalized for Failure? An Examination of Entrepreneur Race, Gender, and Prior Fundraising Track Records in Crowdfunding," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 49(5), pages 1392-1430, September.
    3. Shiya Wang & Adina Sterling, 2025. "Setting Up the Gap? Gender Differences in Initial Salary Offers in Hiring," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(6), pages 2399-2415, November.
    4. Sophia L. Pink & Jose Cervantez & Erika L. Kirgios & Edward H. Chang & Katherine L. Milkman, 2025. "Can Stereotype Reactance Prompt Women to Compete? A Field Experiment," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(5), pages 2008-2027, September.
    5. Bohnet, Iris & Hauser, Oliver P. & Kristal, Ariella S., 2025. "Can gender and race dynamics in performance appraisals be disrupted? The case of social influence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    6. Jamie Jocelyn Ladge & Keimei Sugiyama & Alexis Nicole Smith & Marla Baskerville Watkins & Pamela Carlton, 2025. "Minding the Gap: How Perspective-Taking and Status Reflexivity Help Black Women Executives to Relate Across Difference at Work," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(4), pages 1357-1383, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Desai, Sreedhari D. & Gunia, Brian C., 2023. "The interplay of gender and perceived sexual orientation at the bargaining table: A social dominance and intersectionalist perspective," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    2. Huang, Jennie & Low, Corinne, 2022. "The myth of the male negotiator: Gender’s effect on negotiation strategies and outcomes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 517-532.
    3. Najib A. Mozahem & Moniat El Noufous K. El Masri & Nazhat M. Najm & Samah S. Saleh, 2021. "How Gender Differences in Entitlement and Apprehension Manifest Themselves in Negotiation," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 587-610, June.
    4. Bowles, Hannah Riley, 2012. "Psychological Perspectives on Gender in Negotiation," Working Paper Series rwp12-046, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    5. Bowles, Hannah Riley & Flynn, Francis J., 2007. "Getting Past No: Gender and the Propensity to Persist in Negotiation," Working Paper Series rwp07-063, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    6. Rachel Croson & Uri Gneezy, 2009. "Gender Differences in Preferences," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 448-474, June.
    7. Brett, Jeanne & Thompson, Leigh, 2016. "Negotiation," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 68-79.
    8. Steffen Andersen & Julie Marx & Kasper Meisner Nielsen & Lise Vesterlund, 2021. "Gender Differences in Negotiation: Evidence from Real Estate Transactions," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(638), pages 2304-2332.
    9. Patricia Elgoibar & Elio Shijaku, 2022. "Bringing the Social Back into Sustainability: Why Integrative Negotiation Matters," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-12, May.
    10. Denise L. Reyes & Julie Dinh & Eduardo Salas, 2021. "Can Gender-Disposed Personality Traits Explain Who Initiates Negotiations?," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 30(5), pages 1057-1083, October.
    11. Bertrand, Marianne, 2011. "New Perspectives on Gender," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 17, pages 1543-1590, Elsevier.
    12. Bowles, Hannah Riley, 2012. "Psychological Perspectives on Gender in Negotiation," Scholarly Articles 9830358, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    13. Steffen Andersen & Seda Ertac & Uri Gneezy & John A. List & Sandra Maximiano, 2018. "On the cultural basis of gender differences in negotiation," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 21(4), pages 757-778, December.
    14. Castillo, Marco & Petrie, Ragan & Torero, Maximo & Vesterlund, Lise, 2013. "Gender differences in bargaining outcomes: A field experiment on discrimination," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 35-48.
    15. Kokić, Erna & Wagner, Laure & García López del Amo, Ana & Giering, Charlotte L. & Ly Truong, Van & Petrowsky, Hannes M. & Husen, Onno M. & Loschelder, David D., 2024. "Empowered or informed? Seeking to mitigate gender differences in first-offer assertiveness through pre-negotiation interventions," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    16. Shira Mor, 2018. "Inducing gender/professional identity compatibility promotes women’s compensation requests," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-9, November.
    17. Anne‐Sophie Bruno & Nathalie Greenan & Jeremy Tanguy, 2021. "Does the Gender Mix Influence Collective Bargaining on Gender Equality? Evidence from France," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 479-520, October.
    18. Michael J. Cotter & James A. Henley, 2017. "Gender Contrasts in Negotiation Impasse Rates," Management, University of Primorska, Faculty of Management Koper, vol. 12(1), pages 3-25.
    19. Amanatullah, Emily T. & Tinsley, Catherine H., 2013. "Punishing female negotiators for asserting too much…or not enough: Exploring why advocacy moderates backlash against assertive female negotiators," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 110-122.
    20. Cardella, Eric & Seiler, Michael J., 2016. "The effect of listing price strategy on real estate negotiations: An experimental study," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 71-90.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:34:y:2023:i:2:p:935-958. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.