After graduating from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, Wolfgang Steinel became a PhD student at the department of Work and Organizational Psychology of the University of Amsterdam, where he wrote a dissertation on misleading in social decision making and worked as an assistant professor afterwards. Since July 2004, Wolfgang Steinel has worked as an assistant professor at Leiden University.

Research

Within my broader research interest, the interplay between motivational and strategic determinants of conflict and negotiation behavior, I focus on two research areas, namely (1) information exchange in interdependent decision-making, and (2) representative negotiation.

Information Exchange in Interdependent Decision Making
In the first area, information exchange in social decision making, I approach information exchange, especially lying and deception, from a motivational perspective and building on interdependence theory and goal expectation theory to investigate motivational underpinnings of strategic information provision in social decision making. I am interested in how people's strategic choices of whether to provide accurate or deceptive information are influenced by the effects and interplay of characteristics of the person and the situation. My research in this area focuses on personality factors like social and epistemic motivation, fear, greed, impression management and reputation concerns, and situational characteristics such as dependency and power and trust. Furthermore, I investigate the other coin of information provision, that is, suspicion and reputation effects. The research paradigms I mainly use in this area are based on the game-theoretical tradition.

Representative (or Inter-Group) Negotiation
In my second area of interest, representative negotiation, I build on both the behavioral decision-making tradition and on self-categorization theory to investigate how various aspects of representing a group influences a negotiator's stance in intergroup negotiations. Research questions in this area are, for example, what motivates group representatives to show norm-congruent behavior, how do group representatives deal with heterogeneous constituencies, how does one's standing in a group influence negotiation behavior towards an outgroup opponent, or how the differential motivations and subsequent behavior of core versus marginal group members are influences by characteristics the person or the situation, such as dispositional need to belong, group attractiveness or group norms.  

Teaching

• Social Psychology of Organizational Behavior (Master Program S&O)
• Thesis Supervision (Master Program S&O)
• Tutoraat Academische Vaardigheden (1st year undergraduate)
• Conflict en Coöperatie (3rd year undergraduate)

Publications

Journal Articles (in English)

• Lelieveld, G.J., Van Dijk, E., Van Beest, I., Steinel, W., & Van Kleef, G. A. (2011). Disappointed in you, angry about your offer: Distinct negative emotions induce concessions via different mechanisms. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 635-641.Steinel, W., Utz, S., & Koning, L. (2010). The good, the bad and the ugly thing to do when sharing information: Revealing, concealing and lying depend on social motivation, distribution and importance of information. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 113, 85–96.
• Steinel, W., Van Kleef, G. A., Van Knippenberg, D., Hogg, M. A., Homan, A. C., & Moffitt, G. (2010). How intragroup dynamics affect behavior in intergroup conflict: The role of group norms, prototypicality, and need to belong. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 13, 779-794.
• Koning, L., Van Dijk, E., Van Beest, I., & Steinel, W. (2010). An instrumental account of deception and reactions to deceit in bargaining. Business Ethics Quarterly , 20 , 57-73. 
• Steinel, W., De Dreu, C. K. W., Ouwehand, E. & Ramirez-Marin, J. Y. (2009). When constituencies speak in multiple tongues: The relative persuasiveness of hawkish minorities in representative negotiation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 109, 67–78.
• Steinel, W., Van Kleef, G. A., & Harinck, F. (2008). Are you talking to me?! Separating the people from the problem when expressing emotions in negotiations. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 362-369.  
• Van Dijk, E., Van Kleef, G. A., Steinel, W., & Van Beest, I. (2008). A social functional approach to emotions in bargaining: When communicating anger pays and when it backfires. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 600-614.
• Van Kleef, G. A., Van Dijk, E., Steinel, W., Harinck, F., & Van Beest, I. (2008). Anger in social conflict: Cross-situational comparisons and suggestions for the future. Group Decision and Negotiation, 17, 13-30.
• Steinel, W., Abele, A. E., & De Dreu, C. K. W. (2007). Effects of experience and advice on process and performance in negotiations. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 10, 533-550.
• Steinel, M. P., Hulstijn, H., & Steinel, W. (2007). Second-language idiom learning in a paired-associate paradigm: Effects of direction of learning, direction of testing, idiom imageability, and idiom transparency. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 29, 449–484.
• Van Kleef, G. A., Steinel, W., Van Knippenberg, D., Hogg, M., & Svensson, A. (2007). Group member prototypicality and intergroup negotiation: How one’s standing in the group affects negotiation behaviour. British Journal of Social Psychology, 46, 129-152.
• Steinel, W., & De Dreu, C. K. W. (2004). Social motives and strategic misrepresentation in social decision making. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 419-434.
• De Dreu, C. K. W., Koole, S., & Steinel, W. (2000). Unfixing the fixed pie: A motivated information processing approach to integrative negotiation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 975-987.

• De Dreu, C. K. W., Beersma, B., Steinel, W., & Van Kleef, G. A. (2007). The psychology of negotiation: Principles and basic processes. In A. W. Kruglanski & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of basic principles in social psychology (2nd ed., pp. 608-629). New York: Guilford.
• De Dreu, C. K. W., & Steinel, W. (2006). Social decision-making in fuzzy situations: Motivated information-processing and strategic choice. In D. De Cremer, M. Zeelenberg, & J. K. Murnighan (Eds.), Social psychology and economics (pp. 55-77). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum.

• Koning, L. F., Van Dijk, E., Van Beest, I., & Steinel, W. (2007). Afhankelijkheid en misleiding in ultimatum onderhandelingen [Dependency and deception in ultimatum bargaining]. In C. Van Laar, R. Ruijter, J. Karremans, W. Van Rijswijk, & F. Van Harreveld (Eds.), Jaarboek sociale psychologie 2006 (pp. 225-232). Groningen, The Netherlands: ASPO Pers.
• Steinel, W., & De Dreu, C. K. W. (2002). Liegen en misleiden: De rol van eigen en anderman's sociale waarde oriëntatie [Lying and misleading: The role of own and other's social value orientation]. In D. A. Stapel, M. Hagedoorn, & E. Van Dijk (Eds.), Jaarboek Sociale Psychologie 2001 (pp. 201-214). Delft, The Netherlands: Eburon.

• Pietroni, D., Van Kleef, G. A., Steinel, W., & Alparone, F. R. (2008). Gli effetti della rabbia nei giochi di coordinamento [The effects of anger in coordination games]. Sistemi Intelligenti, 20, 57-77.
• Pietroni, D., Van Kleef, G. A., Steinel, W., & Rumiati, R. (2008). Chiudo la porta e m'arrabio! Gli interpersonali delle emozioni nelle trattative pubbliche e private. [Shut the door and then get angry: The interpersonal effects of emotions in public and privat negotiations]. Psicologia Sociale, 3, 409-424.
• Steinel, W. (2004). Misleading in social decision-making: A motivational approach. Unpublished dissertation, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Membership in Professional Organizations

• International Association for Conflict Management, IACM
• Society for Personality and Social Psychology, SPSP
• European Association of Social Psychology, EASP
• Kurt Lewin Institute, KLI
• Associatie Sociaal-Psychologische Onderzoekers [Dutch Association of Researchers in Social Psychology], ASPO

Other Academic Activities

• Board Member of the International Association for Conflict Management (2006-2008)

• Member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal for Conflict Management
• Member of the Editorial Board of Negotiation and Conflict Management Research

More Information about the Department of Social & Organizational Psychology

For more information about the Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, please visit the website S&O.