Optimal linguistic expression in negotiations depends on visual appearance

PLoS One. 2018 Apr 5;13(4):e0195496. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195496. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

We investigate the influence of the visual appearance of a negotiator on persuasiveness within the context of negotiations. Psychological experiments were conducted to quantitatively analyze the relationship between visual appearance and the use of language. Male and female participants were shown three female and male photographs, respectively. They were asked to report how they felt about each photograph using a seven-point semantic differential (SD) scale for six affective factors (positive impression, extraversion, intelligence, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and agreeableness). Participants then answered how they felt about each negotiation scenario (they were presented with pictures and a situation combined with negotiation sentences) using a seven-point SD scale for seven affective factors (positive impression, extraversion, intelligence, conscientiousness, emotional stability, agreeableness, and degree of persuasion). Two experiments were conducted using different participant groups depending on the negotiation situations. Photographs with good or bad appearances were found to show high or low degrees of persuasion, respectively. A multiple regression equation was obtained, indicating the importance of the three language factors (euphemistic, honorific, and sympathy expressions) to impressions made during negotiation. The result shows that there are optimal negotiation sentences based on various negotiation factors, such as visual appearance and use of language. For example, persons with good appearance might worsen their impression during negotiations by using certain language, although their initial impression was positive, and persons with bad appearance could effectively improve their impressions in negotiations through their use of language, although the final impressions of their negotiation counterpart might still be more negative than those for persons with good appearance. In contrast, the impressions made by persons of normal appearance were not easily affected by their use of language. The results of the present study have significant implications for future studies of effective negotiation strategies considering visual appearance as well as gender.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Affect
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Facial Recognition*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Judgment
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Negotiating / psychology*
  • Personality
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Psycholinguistics*
  • Psychological Tests
  • Regression Analysis
  • Semantics*
  • Sex Factors
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This work was supported by JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research (No. 15K12127). One of the authors, Yumi Hirahara, is employed by a commercial company, Pallas Global Enterprise. This company provided support in the form of salaries for Yumi Hirahra, This company did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are described in the 'Author contributions' section.