Negotiation Research

When Forming First Offers, Take Precision into Account

What should your first offer be in a negotiation? The question doubtless has led to sleepless nights for negotiators who understand that the first offer in a negotiation tends to have a strong anchoring effect on the haggling that may follow. Because even extreme offers can pull the discussion in their direction, the question of how high or low an opening offer to make is a critical one.
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A Downside of Anger

We know that anger leads negotiators to make riskier choices and blame others when things go wrong. In a new study, researchers Jeremy A. Yip and Maurice E. Schweitzer find that anger also leads us to engage in greater deception in negotiation—even when it’s not our counterpart who angered us. In one of the study’s
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When Many Alternatives Are Worse Than One

Negotiators are often taught that the more alternatives they have, the more fortunate they are. If it’s good to have one strong best alternative to a negotiated agreement, or BATNA, then it’s better to have many alternatives, right? Not necessarily, results from a new study by Michael Schaerer of INSEAD and his colleagues show. In
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For Dispute Resolution, Consider a Lawyer Trained in Mediation

If you needed a lawyer to help you settle a business dispute, would you prefer (a) one who was completely partisan toward your point of view or (b) one who saw both sides of the conflict? You might assume that the partisan lawyer would work harder for you than someone who sees things from both
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Negotiating with Rivals

Clinton vs. Trump. Apple vs. Samsung. The New York Yankees vs. the Boston Red Sox. Whether we work in politics, business, sports, or another arena, our competitors sometimes turn into fierce rivals. In addition, many sales, legal, and financial firms structure jobs, incentives, and promotion systems in ways that pit employees against one another to
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When Breaks from Conflict Build Trust

Parties engaged in armed conflict often agree to cease-fires as a first step toward negotiating a peaceful resolution. Yet cease-fires and the agreements they inspire often are unstable, as recent conflicts have shown. In Colombia, for example, where the government and the Marxist guerrilla group FARC have been locked in conflict since 1964, four years
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Hugging it Out

Males and females react to one-on-one conflict differently, research suggests, and perhaps from an early age. Irreconcilable conflicts are more likely to disintegrate the activities and social groups of girls than those of boys, studies have found. Male college roommates were less likely than females to become embroiled in conflicts that led them to change
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