The Motivational Basis of Concessions and Compromise: Archival and Laboratory Studies

Carrie A. Langner, University of California - Berkeley
David G. Winter, University of Michigan

Article comments

Copyright © 2001 American Psychological Association. This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record. The definitive version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.4.711

NOTE: At the time of publication, the author Carrie A. Langner was not yet affiliated with Cal Poly.

Abstract

A content analysis system for measuring positive concessions (offering concessions) and negative concessions (rejecting offered concessions) was introduced and validated through an archival study of government-to-government documents from 4 crises, 2 of which escalated to war and 2 of which were peacefully resolved. In the archival documents, concession making was positively associated with affiliation motivation and negatively associated with power motivation. A 2nd, laboratory experimental study confirmed these relationships and demonstrated priming effects of motive imagery and concession making, in a received diplomatic letter, on participants' responses. Finally, the motive imagery and concessions scores in participants' responses were related in predicted ways to their policy choices.