Cheating for your friend? Men and women negotiating on behalf of their friend in face-to-face and What’sApp negotiations

Although women, compared to men are often worse off at the bargaining table, this difference decreases when women negotiate on behalf of someone else. This apparently creates a condition which empowers women in their negotiation behavior. In this paper we examine to what extent women who negotiate on behalf of their best friend are inclined to misrepresent information if this causes a strategical advantage. In a first experimental study, female and male negotiators bargained face-to-face, either for themselves or for their best friend. In the second study the design was similar, but the negotiators interacted using What’sApp. The results indicate no effect for role or gender in a face-to-face negotiation. Negotiating using What’sApp, however, indicated a main effect for representation role: both men and women displayed a more intense use of misrepresentations when negotiating for their friend. Furthermore, a main effect for gender was found: in both role conditions, women misrepresented the relevant information more often than men.