Ping-Ya Chao
Advisor: Anita Woolley
Major: Policy and Management; Chemistry (dual degrees)
Minor: Societal and Human Impacts of Future Technologies
Power Difference and Collaborative Orientation Effects on Transactivity to Influence Negotiation Outcomes
Transactivity is a measure of how communicating parties build on each other's reasoning. Past transactivity research focused on collaborative learning in educational settings and was mostly disjoint from negotiation research, which emphasized inputs and outcomes. Extant work on negotiation shows that power differences as well as collaborative approaches impact joint outcomes. In this two-phase study, I will explore 1) how power differences and collaborative orientation independently and interactively impact transactivity between negotiators and 2) how transactivity enhances negotiation outcomes. In phase 1, I will work with collaborators to compile existing data on past negotiations and train a machine learning algorithm to extract measures of transactivity from negotiation dialogue. In phase 2, I will investigate the effects of power difference and collaborative orientation on transactivity and negotiation outcomes in a 2x2 factorial laboratory experiment with human negotiators using the New Recruit exercise. I hope this work will increase understanding of how communication factors into negotiation outcomes.
Bio
Ping-Ya is interested in negotiations as well as one-on-one communication, and is delighted to combine the two by studying transactivity in negotiations. She has done a summer of social and decision science research as part of the SURA-BDR program and has taken two negotiation courses, which she greatly enjoyed. She's also an ardent bookworm and board game lover—Terra Mystica and Gloomhaven are her vices.