TY - JOUR
T1 - Unfairness, anger, and spite
T2 - Emotional rejections of ultimatum offers
AU - Pillutla, Madan M.
AU - Murnighan, J. Keith
N1 - Funding Information:
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Academy of Management meetings in Dallas and the Economic Science Association meetings in Tucson, both in 1994. We appreciate the extremely helpful comments that Max Bazerman, Dan Brass, Charalambos Iacovou, Greg Oldham, Archana Vepa, and two anonymous reviewers provided on an earlier version of this paper, as well as Jim Schmidtke's professional assistance with the data and the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Address correspondence and reprint requests to J. Keith Murnighan, Northwestern University, KGSM/OB/Leverone/360, 2001 N. Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208.
PY - 1996/12
Y1 - 1996/12
N2 - This paper addresses an anomaly in experimental economics, the rejection of ultimatum offers, and uses a psychological explanation for this essentially economic event. The wounded pride/spite model predicts that informed, knowledgeable respondents may react to small ultimatum offers by perceiving them as unfair, feeling anger, and acting spitefully. Results of a large scale experiment support the model, showing that rejections were most frequent when respondents could evaluate the fairness of their offers and attribute responsibility to offerers. In addition, anger was a better explanation of the rejections than perceptions that the offers were unfair. The discussion addresses the rarely studied but frequently observed emotions that negotiations provoke.
AB - This paper addresses an anomaly in experimental economics, the rejection of ultimatum offers, and uses a psychological explanation for this essentially economic event. The wounded pride/spite model predicts that informed, knowledgeable respondents may react to small ultimatum offers by perceiving them as unfair, feeling anger, and acting spitefully. Results of a large scale experiment support the model, showing that rejections were most frequent when respondents could evaluate the fairness of their offers and attribute responsibility to offerers. In addition, anger was a better explanation of the rejections than perceptions that the offers were unfair. The discussion addresses the rarely studied but frequently observed emotions that negotiations provoke.
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U2 - 10.1006/obhd.1996.0100
DO - 10.1006/obhd.1996.0100
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0038159171
SN - 0749-5978
VL - 68
SP - 208
EP - 224
JO - Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
JF - Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
IS - 3
ER -