Women negotiators earn greater trust, satisfaction, and future opportunities—with no difference in economic outcomes—according to research published today from UC Berkeley Haas and Cornell University ILR School.
(Image: Adobe Stock)
People prefer negotiating with women, trust them more, and want to work with them again—even when they have no idea their counterpart is a woman. That’s the central finding of a new study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that challenges decades of assumptions about gender and negotiation.
The paper, authored by Charlotte Townsend, PhD 24, now a postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University ILR School’s Department of Organizational Behavior, and UC Berkeley Haas management professors Laura Kray and Solène Delecourt, upends decades of conventional wisdom suggesting men are the stronger negotiators.
Across five studies with over 2,000 participants, women achieved equivalent economic outcomes as men and consistently earned higher ratings on what researchers call “subjective value”—meaning their negotiating partners liked them more, felt the process was fairer, and left the table more satisfied.
