Flattery May Get You Somewhere : The Strategic Implications of Providing Positive vs. Negative Feedback About Ability vs. Ethicality in Negotiation

Two studies were conducted to examine the strategic implications of providing positive vs. negative feedback about ability vs. ethicality to one's negotiating partner. Results indicate that negotiators were least competitive and achieved the worst individual performance when they received negative-ability feedback, were most honest when they received negative-ethicality feedback, and were most cooperative when they received positive-ethicality feedback. Causal modeling revealed that the effects of feedback on recipients' cooperativeness and individual performance were mediated by recipients' self-perceptions