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Negotiators are often advised to seek win-win agreements by focusing on interests (primary features) rather than issues (secondary features), but whether such advice is valid remains to be seen. Consistent with construal level theory (Y. Trope & N. Liberman, 2003), Experiments 1 and 2 show that negotiators focus on secondary features (issues) more than on primary features (interests) when psychological distance is low rather than high, and concomitant construal level is local and specific rather than global and abstract. Experiment 3 showed that high construal level promoted problem-solving behavior and therefore facilitated the achievement of win-win agreement, but only when integrative potential resided in underlying interests; when integrative potential resided in the issues, low construal level negotiators achieved higher joint outcomes. Thus, both low- and high-construal negotiators may achieve win-win agreements when such agreements require trade-offs at the level of issues, or at the level of underlying interests, respectively. Keywords: construal level, underlying interests, negotiation DOI: 10.1037/a0017879

Large collectives (e.g., organizations, political parties, nations) are seldom unitary players. Rather, they consist of different subgroups that often have conflicting interests. Nonetheless, negotiation research consistently regards negotiating teams, who represent these collectives, as monolithic parties with uniform interests. This article integrates concepts from social psychology, management, political science, and behavioral game theory to explore the effects of subgroup conflict on team negotiation. Specifically, the present research introduced a conflict of interests within negotiating teams and investigated how this internal conflict affects the outcome of the negotiation between teams. An experiment with 80 four-person teams found that conflict between subgroups had a detrimental effect on the performance of negotiating teams. This research also employed a recent model of motivated information processing in groups to investigate possible processes underlying the effect of subgroup conflict on team negotiation. Keywords: team negotiation; fault lines; subgroup conflict; group identification; motivated information processing

A series of studies found that the personality dimension of unmitigated communion (H. L. Fritz & V. S. Helgeson, 1998) leads negotiators to make concessions to avoid straining relationships. Results indicate that even within the population of successful business executives, this dimension of relational anxiety can be identified distinctly from more general relational orientations, such as agreeableness, and that it distinctly predicts accommodating tendencies in everyday conflicts. In economic games, unmitigated communion predicts giving in contexts in which the relational norm of reciprocity applies, but not in contexts tapping instrumental or altruistic motives for cooperation. In distributive negotiations, the effect of unmitigated communion in lowering a negotiator's outcome is mediated by prenegotiation anxieties about relational strain and plans to make large concessions if needed to avoid impasse (lower reservation points). In integrative negotiations, high unmitigated communion on both sides of the negotiation dyad results in relational accommodation, evidenced by decreased success in maximizing economic joint gain but increased subjective satisfaction with the relationship. Keywords: personality, negotiation, distributive, integrative, relational accommodating

In three experiments, the authors studied the role of initial ownership of property in bargaining behavior. For this purpose, they created three new variations of the Ultimatum Bargaining Game (UBG). giving, splitting, and taking UBGs. On the basis of insights of loss aversion and the do-no-harm principle, the authors predicted and found that allocations to the recipient were highest in the taking UBG and lowest in the giving UBG. Additional measures to study the underlying mechanism of this effect indicate that the game type effect was mediated by perceptions of entitlement, which allocators did not want to infringe on. Moreover, the effect was not affected by strategic options as provided by deception or power. Keywords: initial ownership; ultimatum bargaining; property; entitlement; do-no-harm principle

The authors examined whether individual differences in social value orientation moderate responses to other's expressions of disappointment in negotiation. The literature suggested competing hypotheses: First, prosocials are more responsive to other's disappointment because they have a greater concern for other; second, proselfs are more responsive because they see other's disappointment as a threat to their own outcomes. Results of a computer-mediated negotiation in which a simulated opponent expressed disappointment, no emotion, or anger supported the second prediction: Proselfs conceded more to a disappointed opponent than to a neutral or angry one, whereas prosocials were unaffected by the other's emotion. This effect was mediated by participants' motivation to satisfy the other's needs, which disappointment triggered more strongly in proselfs than in prosocials. Implications for theorizing on emotion, social value orientation, and negotiation are discussed. Keywords: emotion; disappointment; social value orientation; negotiation

Previous research on the communication of emotions has suggested that bargainers obtain higher outcomes if they communicate anger than if they communicate happiness because anger signals higher limits, which in turn leads opponents to give in. Building on a social functional account of communicated emotions, the authors demonstrate that the behavioral consequences of communicated anger strongly depend on structural characteristics of the bargaining situation. The results of 3 experimental studies on ultimatum bargaining corroborate the notion that communicated anger signals higher limits and that emotion effects are contingent on bargainers' expectation that tow offers will be rejected. The data also indicate, however, that communicating anger in bargaining may backfire. The findings suggest that bargainers who communicate anger may obtain lower outcomes (a) when their opponent has a possibility to deceive them during bargaining and (b) when the consequences of rejecting their opponent's offer are low. Taken together, the current article reveals the boundary' conditions of successful communication of anger in bargaining. Keywords: emotions, bargaining, deception, fairness, self-interest

Negotiators' social motives (cooperative vs. individualistic) influence their strategic behaviors. In this study, the authors used multilevel modeling and analyses of strategy sequences to test hypotheses regarding how negotiators' social motives and the composition of the group influence group members' negotiation strategies. Four-person groups negotiating a 5-issue mixed-motive decision-making task were videotaped, and the tapes were transcribed and coded. Group composition included 2 homogeneous conditions (all cooperators and all individualists) and 3 heterogeneous conditions (3 cooperators and 1 individualist, 2 cooperators and 2 individualists, 1 cooperator and 3 individualists). Results showed that cooperative negotiators adjusted their use of integrative and distributive strategies in response to the social-motive composition of the group, but individualistic negotiators did not. Results from analyses of strategy sequences showed that cooperators responded more systematically to others' behaviors than did individualists. They also redirected the negotiation depending on group composition. Keywords: negotiation, social motives, group processes

Three studies link resistance to probative information and intransigence in negotiation to concerns of identity maintenance. Each shows that affirmations of personal integrity (vs. nonaffirmatio-n or threat) can reduce resistance and intransigence but that this effect occurs only when individuals' partisan identity and/or identity-related convictions are made salient. Affirmation made participants' assessment of a report critical of U.S. foreign policy less dependent on their political views, but only when the identity relevance of the issue rather than the goal of rationality was salient (Study 1). Affirmation increased concession making in a negotiation over abortion policy, but again this effect was moderated by identity salience (Studies 2 and 3). Indeed, although affirmed negotiators proved relatively more open to compromise when either the salience of their true convictions or the importance of remaining faithful to those convictions was heightened, the reverse was true when the salient goal was compromise. The theoretical and applied significance of these findings are discussed. Keywords: self-affirmation, attitudes, bias, negotiation, conflict

The extent to which experience and cognitive processing contribute to fostering integrative negotiation of performance is examined. Results emphasize the importance of not only acknowledging the interests of the opponents but also of assessing their specific gains throughout the negotiating process.

Importance of focal points in solving problems of bargaining is presented.

Across 3 experiments, the authors examined the effects of temporal distance on negotiation behavior. They found that greater temporal distance from negotiation decreased preference for piecemeal, single-issue consideration over integrative, multi-issue consideration (Experiment 1). They also found that greater temporal distance from an event being negotiated increased interest in conceding on the lowest priority issue and decreased interest in conceding on the highest priority issue (Experiment 2). Lastly, they found increased temporal distance from an event being negotiated produced a greater proportion of multi-issue offers, a greater likelihood of conceding on the lowest priority issue in exchange for a concession on the highest priority issue, and greater individual and joint outcomes (Experiment 3). Implications for conflict resolution and construal level theory are discussed. Keywords: construal, time, psychological distance, negotiation, integrative

Three experiments tested a motivated information processing account of the interpersonal effects of anger and happiness in negotiations. In Experiment 1, participants received information about the opponent's emotion (anger, happiness, or none) in a computer-mediated negotiation. As predicted, they conceded more to an angry opponent than to a happy one (controls falling in between), but only when they had a low (rather than a high) need for cognitive closure. Experiment 2 similarly showed that participants were only affected by the other's emotion under low rather than high time pressure, because time pressure reduced their degree of information processing. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that negotiators were only influenced by their opponent's emotion if they had low (rather than high) power. These results support the motivated information processing model by showing that negotiators are only affected by their opponent's emotions if they are motivated to consider them.

In this article, the authors explore the role of individuals' counterfactual thoughts in determining their satisfaction with negotiated outcomes. When negotiators first offers are immediately accepted, negotiators are more likely to generate counterfactual thoughts about how they could have done better and therefore are less likely to be satisfied with the agreement than are negotiators whose offers are not accepted immediately. This reduction in satisfaction emerged even when the objective outcomes of negotiators whose first offers were immediately accepted were equal to or better than the outcomes of negotiators whose first offers were not immediately accepted. Evidence for a disconnect between objective outcomes and evaluations emerged in two scenario experiments and a simulated negotiation. The final experiment explored the functional and dysfunctional consequences of counterfactual activation following the immediate acceptance of first offers. Upward counterfactual thoughts were positively related to the amount of preparation for a subsequent negotiation; on the other hand, upward counterfactual thoughts were negatively correlated with the likelihood of making future first offers.

This article examines the facilitatory effects of visual perception of nonverbal behavior on conflict resolution and cooperation. Findings indicate that subjects engaged in simulated negotiations are able to resolve the conflict more efficiently and cooperate to create greater levels of mutual benefit when communicating face-to-face.

The dual concern model of negotiation predicts behavioral approaches from an analysis of negotiators' motives. Previous studies of the model have shown support, but only under conditions where negotiators' motivationally prescribed behavior was the same. The present study was designed to examine the impact of several different behavioral contexts. Undergraduate students read conflict scenarios in which their concern for self and other, and the behavior of the other party were manipulated. Support for the dual concern model was found when the opponent's behavior was identical to the negotiator's own motivationally prescribed behavior. Across most conditions, a behavioral matching hypothesis provided a better explanation. However, interactions between motivational orientation and behavioral context suggest that negotiators' behavior may be best predicted through a combination of motivational and matching models.

An examination of 20 sample nuisance cases reveals several obstacles to bargaining after judgment by the parties. These obstacles, not previously considered in the literature of remedies, include the disinclination of the parties to treat the rights at issue as commodities, the parties' distaste for bargaining, and the lack of proper substitutes for the rights involved. The parties' attitudes about bargaining, even when the "transaction costs" of bargaining were low, differed sharply from those economists and attorneys who employ the "market-like" model for bargaining behavior.

Children and adults use ultimatum bargaining as an end-game strategy in negotiations. Studies shows that younger children are more capable of offering more and accepting less compared to older children or adults. As the age increases, children are less likely to be willing to accept smaller offers except college students. Boys tended to be more strategic in monetary offers while girls, on the other hand, tended to be extremely fair in offering goods, such as M&M chocolates.

This study investigates the effects of culture, BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement), outcome scales, and mediation on negotiation outcomes. Six hundred three subjects from 2 countries (288 from Hong Kong and 315 from the United States) participated in 2-party negotiations that were either mediated or observed by a third party. In these negotiations, the Hong Kong negotiators obtained higher joint outcomes than did their U.S. counterparts. Also, in both Hong Kong and the United States, negotiators with a high BATNA obtained larger individual outcomes than did those with a low BATNA. Finally, mediation resulted in higher joint outcomes than did no mediation and had a stronger effect in U.S. (vs. Hong Kong) negotiations.

Two studies tested the effects of negotiators' social motive (cooperative vs. individualistic) and punitive capability (high vs. low) on trust, negotiation behavior, and joint outcomes. On the basis of structural goal-expectation theory (T. Yamagishi, 1986), it was predicted that in the case of a cooperative motive higher levels of punitive capability lead to less trust, less exchange of information about preferences and priorities, and agreements of lower joint outcome. Study 1 (N = 41) supported this prediction: Cooperative negotiators had lower trust, exchanged less information, and attained lower joint outcomes under high rather than low punitive capability; individualistic negotiators were not influenced by punitive capability, presumably because they have low levels of trust to start with. Study 2 (N = 21) showed that these effects happened because higher levels of punitive capability increase conflict avoidance in negotiators with a cooperative motive.

Negotiation researchers theorize that individual differences are determinants of bargaining processes and outcomes but have yet to establish empirically the role of individual differences. In 2 studies the authors used bargaining simulations to examine the roles of personality and cognitive ability in distributive (Study 1) and integrative (Study 2) negotiation. The authors hypothesized and found evidence that Extraversion and Agreeableness are liabilities in distributive bargaining encounters. For both Extraversion and Agreeableness there were interactions between personality and negotiator aspirations such that personality effects were more pronounced in the absence of high aspirations. Contrary to predictions, Conscientiousness was generally unrelated to bargaining success. Cognitive ability played no role in distributive bargaining but was markedly related to the attainment of joint outcomes in a situation with integrative potential.

This article analyzes the role that is played by affect in negotiations. I analyze the origins of affect and its implications for negotiation processes and outcomes. Negotiation may entail both positive and negative affect; in addition, the two kinds of affect may have positive as well as negative consequences. My analysis of the role played by affect occurs primarily at the level of the dyad; however, I do explore the impact of organizational context and its impact on the development of the negotiation process. Implications for future research are discussed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

This study examined the impact of conflict-resolution training on students' use of distributive and integrative negotiating procedures. In a midwestern, suburban middle school, 176 students (grades 6 through 9) participated in the study. Students were placed in a negotiation situation involving the buying and selling of commodities in which they could adopt a distributive (maximize own outcomes) or an integrative (maximize joint outcomes) negotiation approach. There were no significant differences between males and females or among students in the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. The results of this study indicated that conflict-resolution and peer-mediation training resulted in the middle school students increasing their use of integrative negotiations and the positiveness of students' attitudes toward conflict.