Title

The Motivational Basis of Concessions and Compromise: Archival and Laboratory Studies

Author Info

Carrie A. Langner, University of California - BerkeleyFollow
David G. Winter, University of Michigan

Recommended Citation

Postprint version. Published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Volume 81, Issue 4, October 1, 2001, pages 711-727.

NOTE: At the time of publication, the author Carrie A. Langner was not yet affiliated with Cal Poly.

The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.4.711.

Abstract

A content analysis system for measuring positive concessions (offering concessions) and negative concessions (rejecting offered concessions) was introduced and validated through an archival study of government-to-government documents from 4 crises, 2 of which escalated to war and 2 of which were peacefully resolved. In the archival documents, concession making was positively associated with affiliation motivation and negatively associated with power motivation. A 2nd, laboratory experimental study confirmed these relationships and demonstrated priming effects of motive imagery and concession making, in a received diplomatic letter, on participants' responses. Finally, the motive imagery and concessions scores in participants' responses were related in predicted ways to their policy choices.

Disciplines

Psychology

Copyright

2001 American Psychological Association.

Publisher statement

This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.