Spot On - The “Spotlight Effect” of Discourse Particles In The First Offer

Discourse particles are words or phrases like “only” that serve to signal the speaker's stance or attitude towards the discourse and because they are part of a natural language are used in ne-gotiations. The “spotlight effect” refers to the phenomenon by which discourse particles draw attention to the speaker's intention. We assume that, if used selectively, the spotlight effect could also be used strategically to influence the memory of negotiation processes, e.g., when used in a first offer. In a current study, we found out that the spotlight effect is also present in first offers and helps to remember specific offer parts, which supports the anchoring effect.