IMPLICIT ROLE OBLIGATIONS VERSUS SOCIAL-RESPONSIBILITY IN CONSTITUENCY REPRESENTATION

The widely accepted conclusion that constituency representation in itself produces inflexible and ineffective competition was critiqued. A new model was proposed that predicts enhanced bargaining flexibility and outcome effectiveness as a consequence of constituency representation. Two experiments were conducted with adult Ss. In Experiment 1, pairs of Ss bargained under 1 of 5 conditions of varied constituency representation. Maximum gain in the bargaining task required the establishment of cooperation. Dyads including at least 1 constituent representative bargained more cooperatively and achieved better outcomes than did nonrepresentative dyads. Experiment 2 used a factorial design that varied representational roles and apparent opponent strategy. Findings confirmed the prediction that representatives would exploit cooperative partners more, and would achieve better outcomes, than nonrepresentatives would.