Perceived versus actual transparency of goals in negotiation

Participants in Study 1 either engaged in a negotiation with a "phantom" second negotiator or observed the negotiation. Negotiators judged whether the observer would be able to accurately discern their goals from their behavior; observers judged the negotiator's goals. Results indicated that negotiators overestimated the transparency of their objectives. An interaction between goal salience and constraints on communication was also evident: When communication was highly constrained, negotiators overestimated their transparency only when they were led to focus on their goals; when communication was less constrained, negotiators overestimated their transparency regardless of goal salience. Study 2 revealed that motivational forces are not necessary for transparency overestimation to occur: Observers informed about a negotiator's goals also overestimated the extent to which his or her goals would be transparent to an uninformed observer.