Female suggestive clothing affects male offer-making in negotiations.

In this set of four studies (three lab and one field experiment) we investigate the effects of female suggestive clothing on male offer-making in price negotiations. Despite an abundance of lay theories, this applied question has been largely ignored in the negotiation and sales literature. We argue that men over-interpret the intended signal of suggestive clothing as sexual availability and intent, which in turn causes a subconscious process of costly signaling and cooperation. In turn, males engage in (for the woman) more favorable offer-making as a costly signal of cooperation, which leads to more favorable economic outcomes for suggestively dressed women. We find evidence for the effect of female suggestive clothing on first offers across four studies with different samples, both in the lab and in the field. Moreover, we find that this first offer effect also translates into more favorable economic outcomes in distributive negotiations.