You make an offer. Hours go by. Is silence random… or revealing?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
When sellers take a long time to respond, what’s happening on their end? Are they busy, or weighing the deal?
Miruna Cotet and team at Ohio State University analyzed over a million eBay negotiations. They measured how long sellers took to accept or reject offers.
The findings? Sellers quickly rejected bad offers, and quickly accepted great ones. But when the offer was borderline, they hesitated and made buyers wait. How long someone takes to respond can reveal how close you are to a deal.
Silence isn’t random, it’s part of the negotiation. But money talks!
Reference: Cotet, M., Zhao, W. J., & Krajbich, I. (2025). Deliberation during online bargaining reveals strategic information. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(7), e2410956122. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2410956122