Behavioural Signatures of Wise Negotiators: An Experimental Approach Using an Investment Game

Wisdom in negotiation is increasingly vital in managing conflicts, yet its behavioural expression remains underexplored. This study explores the behavioural signatures of individuals nominated as wise negotiators within an organisational context. There were 48 participants recruited as wise negotiators from a larger pool of 313 participants. There were three manipulations used: archetypes (personality), reciprocity style, and emotionality, resulting in a 4X3X2 design (24 conditions). Participants were also asked to fill out various wisdom related questionnaires. Each participant had to go through 24 conditions separately before playing an investment game each time. For the analysis purpose, three-way repeated ANOVA and three-way repeated ANCOVA were used. The results revealed that there was a difference in how wise negotiators negotiate differently with different archetypes (p < 0.01), reciprocity (p < 0.01) and emotional situations (p < 0.01). Additionally, there were also interaction effects of archetypes, reciprocity and emotional situations (p < 0.05). Notably, when wisdom variables were statistically controlled, these differences became nonsignificant. A supplementary 2 × 2 design explored gender interactions, showing that outcomes differed by opponents’ gender but not by the gender of the wise negotiator. This finding highlights the role of wisdom traits in strategic negotiation and has implications for training and selection in a high-stakes negotiation context.