Negotiation Research

To curb dishonesty in negotiation, confront “paranoid pessimism”

Business negotiators often worry about being deceived, and understandably so. The potential for being lied to or swindled can be high in negotiation, given that our counterparts typically have access to information about preferences, alternatives, product quality, and so on, that we lack. Yet research shows that negotiators often behave honestly even when doing so costs them money.
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“Twinning” at negotiation: Using similarities to measure our differences

We might hope that when we adopt negotiation best practices—such as spending lots of time preparing and asking questions at the table—we would achieve consistently strong results in our negotiations. Yet as most of us have experienced, our outcomes and personal satisfaction can vary a great deal from one negotiation to the next. Why?
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For a power boost, offer advice

In negotiation, we gain power from strong alternatives, a powerful role, or our particular talents and skills. What if we lack power in a particular negotiation? We may be able to do well nonetheless if we merely feel powerful, research suggests.
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In negotiations with friends, it may pay to lower your expectations

Negotiations between friends and others in a close relationship are notoriously inefficient, research shows.
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The pitfalls of put-downs: When “trash talk” backfires

In a survey of office workers from Fortune 500 companies, Georgetown University professor Jeremy Yip and his colleagues found that 61% recalled hearing or engaging in boastful or insulting comments at work within the prior three months.
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French impressions

The French are well known for their sartorial style, but what about their negotiating style?
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When being yourself gets you the job

“Just be yourself”: It’s probably the most common advice given to job interviewees. But research suggests most people don’t follow the old cliché.
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When women “lean out” of leadership roles

Women are underrepresented in leadership roles in the workplace, holding only about 16% of executive positions in Fortune 500 companies. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and others have urged women to “lean in” by competing for high-level managerial jobs and negotiating for better pay and greater responsibility. Yet substantial evidence shows that many women who try to lean in face biased hiring and promotion processes that favor men.
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When anger helps and hurts at the office

Most of us dread displays of anger at work, whether we’re the aggrieved party, the target of someone’s wrath, or just an innocent bystander. But anger can have benefits in the workplace when expressed constructively, airing differences that need to be addressed, improving relationships, and bringing injustice and mistreatment to light.
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When first offers fail

In negotiation, the party who makes the first offer often gets the lion’s share of the value. That can be due to the anchoring effect, or the tendency for the first offer to “anchor” the bargaining that follows in its direction, even if the offer recipient thinks the offer is out of line. Yet plenty of times, the person making the first offer fails to capture most of the value in a negotiation. Why might that be the case?
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