When Fairness Beats Logic
Imagine you get €100 and must split it with someone else. But there’s a catch — if they reject your offer, neither of you gets anything.
For example, you offer €10 wanting to keep €90 to yourself, and they say no. Then you get nothing, they get nothing. Game over.
Welcome to the Ultimatum Game, a classic experiment in behavioral economics. And a powerful lens on real-world negotiation dynamics.
“But rejecting free money isn’t rational!” I hear you object. Yet the experiment consistently reveals that people don’t just care about the outcome — they care about fairness, respect, and how the offer is made.
In B2B negotiations, we see this more often than you’d think:
- One side anchors hard — and the other walks, even if the deal made economic sense.
- A retailer pushes for steep discounts, but the supplier rejects, incurring short-term financial loss, to avoid setting a harmful precedent for future negotiations
- A startup declines a lucrative acquisition—not due to price, but because of disrespectful treatment.
People don’t respond to logic alone. They respond to how they’re treated and whether their needs are acknowledged.
Key takeaways for B2B negotiators:
✅ Fairness is not a soft topic — it’s a strategic variable.
✅ Power plays can backfire when they are perceived as unjust.
✅ Both the deal structure and the delivery matter: clarity, timing, tone, and process shape how offers are received.
In short: Negotiation isn’t just math. It’s psychology.
Ignore perceived fairness, and you might win the numbers on paper — but lose the deal.
#Negotiation #GameTheory #B2B #Fairness #BehavioralEconomics #Leadership #CreatingSharedSuccess