How Do Ordinary Japanese Reach Consensus in Group Decision Making? : Identifying and Analyzing "Naïve Negotiation"

The purpose of this study is to investigate the negotiation processes of Japanese participants in a multi-party meeting and to identify some characteristics of “naïve negotiation,” our tentative naming for the style of negotiation in which participants share neither particular knowledge on the topics nor specific procedures to reach a conclusion. The first half of the analysis concerns the structural aspects of naïve negotiation in which the participants often reach a consensus without thorough examination of proposed opinions. The latter half of the analysis further reveals the following four features characteristic to such negotiation: 1) choosing topics to discuss at random; 2) leaving the topics untouched for a substantial amount of time; 3) abruptly shifting to the consensus phase; 4) presenting claims without any grounds, i.e. evidence/reasoning. From this analysis, we call attention to the need for developing a support system that will assist the negotiation process amongst novice discussants.