Keep Your Eye On the Goal! Power Predicts Negotiation Outcomes by Directing Attention

What an individual focuses on in a situation plays a key role in their decision-making, and subsequently their material and relational outcomes. Yet when a situation has a variety of demands on attention, it is necessary to be selective when directing one's focus. The current study examines where individuals direct their attention in a negotiation depending on their sense of power and how this attention affects their negotiated outcomes. To address this question, we conducted a negotiation over video conferencing and tracked participants' eye movements to determine where they are dedicating their attention. Results show that powerful participants failed to focus their attention on their counterpart, but rather than hindering their negotiation outcomes, as previous research would suggest, this lack of attention to their counterparts appeared to facilitate integrative negotiation outcomes. Implications for both negotiation research and attention research are discussed and future research recommendations are made.