Is it Really a Man’s World? Using Real-Life Negotiations to Reframe the Negotiation Gender Gap

Much has been written regarding the gender negotiation gap. However, the existing literature frequently involves only hypothetical negotiations where the participants do not experience the effects of the negotiation as one would in real life. This first-of-its-kind study utilizes a dataset of over 1,000 negotiations from the television show Pawn Stars to analyze the role gender plays in negotiations. Negotiation best practices analyzed in this study include the willingness to walk away from the negotiation, use of a counteroffer, use of objective language, and the implementation of cognitive anchoring by making extreme initial offers.

The results shed light on traditional notions of the gender negotiation gap, gender-based negotiation advice, and future research on the subject.