Behavior Announcement In Negotiation

In the present research, we study the effect of announcing behaviors, such as "Let me ask you a question…", followed by the announced question, in negotiations. Building on information processing theories, we argue that behavior announcements facilitate value creation by shifting listeners' attention to the speech act and providing contextual knowledge. Moreover, extending speech act theory, we propose that behavior announcements are positively related to rapport between negotiators as they increase transparency in the interaction. Results of our preregistered study (N = 282) show that behavior announcements positively affect negotiator rapport which is partially explained by the higher perceived transparency of the negotiator using behavior announcements. However, behavior announcements did not affect information processing nor value creation. This study provides an initial indication of the effect of behavior announcements in negotiation settings and highlights the importance of transparency in building rapport.