It Takes One to Tango: The Effects of Dyads' Epistemic Motivation Composition in Negotiation

This study examined the effects of epistemic motivation composition in negotiation. Results from Experiment 1 revealed that dyads in which at least one member had high epistemic motivation (measured by personal need for structure) reached higher joint outcomes than dyads in which both members had low epistemic motivation. In Experiment 2, epistemic motivation was manipulated and negotiators were provided with full information or incomplete information about their counterpart's preferences. Two competing sets of hypotheses were developed and tested. Negotiation behavior was coded, and mediation analysis established that the presence of one negotiator with high epistemic motivation helped negotiators overcome information insufficiency and benefited the dyad as a whole because of increased information search rather than heuristic trial and error. Theoretical implications are discussed.