Sleep Deprivation and Negotiation

Abstract

In a series of five studies, we examined the effects of sleep deprivation on negotiation outcomes. In three experiments (total N = 398), sleep-deprived dyads versus dyads with regular sleep participated in (Studies 1 and 2) or observed (Study 3) an integrative negotiation. In all three studies, we found no evidence that sleep deprivation reduces the quality of agreements in terms of joint economic outcomes. A Bayesian meta-analysis across studies supported this finding. These findings contradict our theoretical prediction and also laypersons’ expectations (Study 4). However, we found first evidence for compensatory effort in sleep-deprived individuals that could account for the absence of the expected effect. We conducted qualitative interviews with 22 German elected politicians (including heads of state and federal ministers; Study 5). Their responses shed light on the nature of compensatory strategies to cope with sleep deprivation in real-life negotiations.