Personality in negotiation revisited: Recent advances and future directions

Influential voices long dismissed individual differences as irrelevant to negotiation research. Recent calls to examine the process in its full complexity invite a renewed look at personality in negotiation. We take stock of the evidence using three complementary lenses: When does personality matter across contexts, outcomes, and phases? With whom does personality matter in interaction, including partner and fit effects? How should researchers design studies and measures that can recover stable personality effects in interdependent settings? Across these lenses, recent advances suggest that trait effects are most detectable in phase-proximal behaviors (e.g., initiation and preparation), are frequently contingent on counterparts and situational affordances, and may be especially worthwhile to examine for subjective, relational, and reputational outcomes that shape what happens after agreement. Methodologically, designs that separate actor, partner, and relationship components and capture trajectories rather than endpoints are especially informative. We outline future directions aligned with phase-specific theory, dyadic mechanisms, and innovative methods. We highlight emerging tools, including computational measurement and agent-based paradigms, that should accelerate cumulative progress.