The Morality of Bluffing: A Reply to Allhoff
Journal of Business Ethics · 2005 · Volume 56 · Issue 4
DOI: 10.1007/s10551-004-2007-6
Abstract
In a recent paper that appeared in this journal Fritz Allhoff addresses the morality of bluffing in negotiations1. He focuses on cases in which people misstate their “reservation price” in negotiations, e.g., suppose that I am selling a house and tell a prospective buyer that $300,000 is absolutely the lowest price that I will accept, when I know that I would be willing to accept as little as $270,000 for the house rather than continue to try to sell it. Allhoff criticizes my (qualified) defense of bluffing in my paper “Second Thoughts on Bluffing,”2and offers what he takes to be a more plausible defense of bluffing. Allhoff’s criticisms rest on several serious misinterpretations of my views. He ascribes to me several arguments that I don’t make. He also attributes to me an unqualified defense of bluffing that I explicitly reject. I briefly document this in Section 1. In Sections 2 and 3 I explain and criticize Allhoff’s positive views about bluffing and the morality of bluffing.
Keywords
Bluffing, Negotiations, lying, deception
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