Are There Gender Differences in Negotiation Roles? A Case Study in Shark Tank Vietnam

Thu Ba Hoang

Published: 2025/03/01

Abstract

The study of gender language from a socio-pragmatic approach, based on quantitative data from real interactions or sources such as television programs, is considered a promising approach to identify gender language features objectively and accurately. Such findings are not framed in gender stereotypes as those obtained in previous approaches. This article, using a socio-pragmatic approach, identified gender language features from the uses of speech acts in Shark Tank Vietnam, a reality TV program about negotiations. Conversational analysis was adapted in the study to analyze 30 negotiation conversations in Shark Tank Vietnam Season 3, describing five groups of speech acts under Searle’s theory in the utterances of male and female investors (sharks) and players. Quantitative analysis showed gender differences in the use of speech acts during negotiations in both groups of participants. The results point to a number of linguistic features in the speech of businessmen and -women from each role in negotiations.

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