Cue Usage Characteristics of Angry Negotiators in Distributive Electronic Negotiation

Abstract

The role of anger in negotiation is explored in considerable depth in many papers in the literature. In the electronic negotiation situation, one way to express anger (in addition to plain textual messages) is through the use of emoticons and para-linguistic cues. Cue usage by angry negotiators under different levels of anger is unexplored in negotiation literature. In this paper, we address this gap by conducting a distributive electronic negotiation experiment and studying the usage of cues (statements and para-linguistic cues including emoticons) by angry negotiators while interacting with their counterpart (computer). We report that participants tend use more para-cues, especially emoticons, as their anger intensity increases and that emoticons have the ability to replace other para-cues while composing angry messages. The findings provide promising inputs on design of user interfaces for electronic negotiation systems.