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Vita

Hong Zhang is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Social and Political Psychology (SPP) and Motivation Psychology at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg. As a member of the Negotiation Research Group (NRG), Hong’s research focuses on parties’ cognitions (e.g., mental accounting processes; mindsets) and emotions (e.g., envy) in the different contexts of negotiations (e.g., buyer-seller negotiations, resource-allocation negotiations). She has presented her research in Asia, Europe, and North America, and teaches college courses on empirical research and negotiation. Hong is committed to apply her research findings to real-world negotiations and make them valuable to practice from ecological, economic, and societal perspectives. She has shared her findings with negotiation practitioners in MBA courses as well as corporate training (e.g., Poznań University of Economics and Business, Siemens).

 

Hong received her BA in Business Administration and French Literature from Wuhan University (China), her MSc in Management from ESC Rouen Business School (France), and her Ph.D. in Management and Marketing from the Free University of Berlin.

 

Research interests: Negotiation, Mental Accounting, Agenda Setting, Emotion, Mindset

Research Interests

Hong Zhang is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Social, Organizational, and Political Psychology (SOPP) at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg. Her research focuses on mental accounting in negotiation, particularly the cognitive processes of segregating and integrating information during the negotiation process. She has also conducted work in the areas of agenda setting and mindset in negotiations. She has presented his research in Asia, Europe, and North America, and teaches college courses on empirical research and negotiation. Hong is committed to apply her research findings to real-world negotiations and make them valuable to society. She has shared her findings with negotiation practitioners in MBA courses as well as corporate training (e.g., Copenhagen Business School, Siemens).

Hong received her BA in Business Administration and French Literature from Wuhan University (China), her MSc in Management from ESC Rouen Business School (France), and her PhD in Management and Marketing from Free University of Berlin.

Research interests: Negotiation, Mental Accounting, Agenda Setting, Mindset, Cross-Culture

Projects

  1. Mental Accounting in Allocation Negotiations
    Roman Trötschel (Project manager, academic) , Hong Zhang (Project manager, academic) , Simone Moran (Project manager, academic) , Ilana Ritov (Project manager, academic) , Johann Majer (Project staff)

    Project: Research

  2. Mental Accounting in Negotiations
    Roman Trötschel (Project manager, academic) , Hong Zhang (Project manager, academic) , Johann Majer (Project manager, academic)

    Project: Research

Publications

Journal contributions

  1. Structuring success: How issue-packaging agendas foster better joint outcomes in multi-issue negotiations
    Hong Zhang (Author) , Ingmar Geiger (Author) , Johann M. Majer (Author) , Roman Trötschel (Author) , 01.03.2026 , in: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 123 , 9 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  2. Trade-off Difficulty in Negotiations: Generating and Realizing Agreements Under Interdependence
    Roman Trötschel (Author) , Hong Zhang (Author) , 01.01.2026 , in: Current Opinion in Psychology

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  3. Thinking Beyond the Bargaining Table: Negotiators’ Perceptions, Behaviours and Outcomes in Negotiations Affecting External Parties
    Kai Zhang (Author) , Hong Zhang (Author) , Hillie Aaldering (Author) , Johann M. Majer (Author) , Roman Trötschel (Author) , 01.12.2025 , in: European Journal of Social Psychology, 55, 7 , p. 1152-1170 , 19 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  4. How Do Negotiators Resolve Conflict Over Resources of Changing Value: The Role of Trust in Sequential Negotiations
    Hillie Aaldering (Author) , Hong Zhang (Author) , Johann M. Majer (Author) , Roman Trötschel (Author) , Caroline Heydenbluth (Author) , 01.12.2025 , in: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied , 20 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  5. Resolving the Complexity-Flexibility Dilemma in Multi-Issue Negotiations: Nested Bracketing as a Strategy to Enhance Negotiation Outcomes
    Hong Zhang (Author) , Johann M. Majer (Author) , Roman Trötschel (Author) , Marco Warsitzka (Author) , 01.01.2025 , in: Journal of Applied Psychology , 20 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Activities

  1. Managing the present generations’ conflicts on the backs of future generations: How current generation’s negotiators create and claim value for themselves and future others
    Hong Zhang (Coauthor) , Kai Zhang (Coauthor) , Roman Trötschel (Coauthor) , Marie Treek (presenter) , Johann Majer (Coauthor)

    Activity: Conference PresentationsResearch

  2. One generation plants the trees, another gets the shade? Negotiators' perceptions and behaviors in intergenerational allocations of resources.
    Hong Zhang (Coauthor) , Roman Trötschel (Coauthor) , Marie van Treek (Speaker) , Johann Martin Majer (Coauthor)

    Activity: Conference PresentationsResearch

  3. Economic Capital and Social Capital in Integrative Negotiations - IACM 2019
    Kai Zhang (Speaker) , Hong Zhang (Speaker) , Roman Trötschel (Speaker)

    Activity: Conference PresentationsResearch

  4. Mental Parsing as A Mixed Blessing for Integrative Agreements: When Parsing Multiple Issues into Separate Mental Accounts Helps Versus Hurts Negotiators.
    Roman Trötschel (Speaker) , Hong Zhang (Speaker) , Johann Martin Majer (Speaker)

    Activity: Conference PresentationsResearch

  5. A Model of Mental Accounting in Negotiations.
    Roman Trötschel (Speaker) , Hong Zhang (Speaker) , Louise Leitsch (Speaker) , Johann Martin Majer (Speaker) , Marco Warsitzka (Speaker)

    Activity: Conference PresentationsResearch

Prizes

  1. AC4 IACM Conference Scholar Award
    (Recipient) ,

    Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointmentsResearch

  2. Research Grant from DRRC, Kellogg School of Management – Research residency
    (Recipient) (Recipient) ,

    Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointmentsResearch

  3. AC4 IACM Conference Scholar Award
    (Recipient) ,

    Prize: external Prizes, scholarships, distinctions, appointmentsResearch

Courses

The course deals with psychological processes in political negotiations in the context of ecological, economic, or societal transformations (i.e., transformation negotiations). Transformation negotiations can be defined as joint and interactive decision-making processes aimed at solving present and future social conflicts arising from economic, ecological, societal, or cultural transitions. Transformation negotiations seek to promote sustainable development through (a) incorporating interests across multiple outcome levels such as economic, ecological, and social levels, (b) integrating multilateral interests of parties at and beyond the negotiation table, and (c) balancing short-term and long-term consequences across a prolonged time period. Accordingly, transformation negotiations have the object of solving conflicts on multiple dimensions to promote interlocal, intersectional, and intergenerational justice.

From a psychological standpoint, negotiating transformation is particularly challenging as it evokes various social conflicts at different levels (e.g.,intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup conflicts) and thus raises cognitive demands. Under this circumstance, negotiators need to make tradeoffs across various outcome dimensions (e.g., economic, ecologic, and social outcomes). They must take external parties’ interests into consideration and need to balance immediate and future consequences resulting from their negotiated agreements. In sum, parties in transformation negotiations must not only solve their social conflicts at the table but must also reconcile various types of other conflicts beyond the table (e.g., conflicts between present and future generations, conflicts being present vs. absent from the table, conflicts across various outcome dimensions such ecological vs. economic outcomes). Accordingly, sustainable conflict solutions through negotiations can only be achieved when negotiators take all “externalities” arising from their agreements into account.

The course ‘Managing and Negotiating Sustainability Conflicts’ will focus on psychological drivers and barriers in transformation negotiations in the context of political decision-making. Specifically, the course will deal with biased perceptions, erroneous beliefs, or self-defensive cognitions that hinder the achievement of sustainable agreements. Beneficial psychological drivers in transformation negotiations such as perspective taking, accountability beliefs, or shared cognition will also be discussed and addressed in the course. Further, from a motivational perspective, the course will deal with the impact of competitive versus cooperative negotiation strategies aimed at the transition towards sustainability (e.g., logrolling, expanding the pie, collectivizing vs. threating, contending, bluffing). Finally, from a group research perspective, the effect of social identification (individual vs. group identification), group processes (group losses vs. gains), and group representation (representatives vs. constituency) will be examined. The acquired knowledge from the course will be applied to real-world examples of political negotiations involving economic, ecological, societal, or cultural issues aimed at the transition towards sustainability.

Next appointment:
Thursday, 2026-10-15 at 08:15
The course deals with psychological processes in political negotiations in the context of ecological, economic, or societal transformations (i.e., transformation negotiations). Transformation negotiations can be defined as joint and interactive decision-making processes aimed at solving present and future social conflicts arising from economic, ecological, societal, or cultural transitions. Transformation negotiations seek to promote sustainable development through (a) incorporating interests across multiple outcome levels such as economic, ecological, and social levels, (b) integrating multilateral interests of parties at and beyond the negotiation table, and (c) balancing short-term and long-term consequences across a prolonged time period. Accordingly, transformation negotiations have the object of solving conflicts on multiple dimensions to promote interlocal, intersectional, and intergenerational justice.

From a psychological standpoint, negotiating transformation is particularly challenging as it evokes various social conflicts at different levels (e.g.,intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup conflicts) and thus raises cognitive demands. Under this circumstance, negotiators need to make tradeoffs across various outcome dimensions (e.g., economic, ecologic, and social outcomes). They must take external parties’ interests into consideration and need to balance immediate and future consequences resulting from their negotiated agreements. In sum, parties in transformation negotiations must not only solve their social conflicts at the table but must also reconcile various types of other conflicts beyond the table (e.g., conflicts between present and future generations, conflicts being present vs. absent from the table, conflicts across various outcome dimensions such ecological vs. economic outcomes). Accordingly, sustainable conflict solutions through negotiations can only be achieved when negotiators take all “externalities” arising from their agreements into account.

The course ‘Managing and Negotiating Sustainability Conflicts’ will focus on psychological drivers and barriers in transformation negotiations in the context of political decision-making. Specifically, the course will deal with biased perceptions, erroneous beliefs, or self-defensive cognitions that hinder the achievement of sustainable agreements. Beneficial psychological drivers in transformation negotiations such as perspective taking, accountability beliefs, or shared cognition will also be discussed and addressed in the course. Further, from a motivational perspective, the course will deal with the impact of competitive versus cooperative negotiation strategies aimed at the transition towards sustainability (e.g., logrolling, expanding the pie, collectivizing vs. threating, contending, bluffing). Finally, from a group research perspective, the effect of social identification (individual vs. group identification), group processes (group losses vs. gains), and group representation (representatives vs. constituency) will be examined. The acquired knowledge from the course will be applied to real-world examples of political negotiations involving economic, ecological, societal, or cultural issues aimed at the transition towards sustainability.

Next appointment:
Thursday, 2026-10-15 at 08:15