Women’s negotiation support system—as affected by personal appearance versus use of language

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the influence of Kawaii appearance on persuasiveness within the context of a negotiation, and propose a support system for advising women on their negotiation approach—with a focus on the negotiator’s Kawaii appearance. As a result of this experiment, we were able to obtain the multiple regression equation indicating the importance of the three language factors (euphemistic, honorific and sympathy expressions) for impressions made during negotiations. Based on this multiple regression equation, we constructed a system which automatically suggests negotiation sentences appropriate for creating a certain desired impression. Our system is expected to be able to recommend the optimal negotiation sentences based on the user’s personal and situational factors (such as Kawaii appearance, use of language, age, and relationship to the negotiation counterpart).