Inside a deal

It pays to get inside your opponents' heads rather than their hearts

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Readers' comments



Clearly what is missing from either the study or what is covered in the article is the quality of the deal and from whose perspective. If the study allowed for only one possible deal to be reached in each case than it tells you nothing about whether 'empathy or perspective-taking' enhances your negotiating skills or not.
Surely the measure of a good negotiator is the one who wins in the final deal. In a business context this is not limiting to simply cash or other short term gains, but must be reviewed over the long term.

Joe in Portland OR

Did anyone else read this and think, "duh"?Can I get a research grant to see if physically abusing an antagonist during a negotiation helps? I'm convinced that if I punch someone in their face while negotiating or otherwise "kicking their ass" will increase stakes in my favor. What about sleeping with the opposition?I also believe that empathy is stronger than "perspective-taking" in any negotiation. In order to have empathy, don't you have to have "perspective-taking"? Or maybe I miss-read the article.


Well i thought one learns that in childhood, while trying to get a toy from ones parents. Empathy which meant crying untill you get what you want worked sometimes.But perspektiv taking which meant convincing your parents that the toy will help your charakter building (how ever) worked allways. That means, haveing rich parents actually harms your negotiating skills.


i wonder if the students were mostly men or women? Furthermore, it just shows (in part), the touchy feely BS does not work - either in this experiment or the real world. Unless, perhaps, if ALL the negociators are women...

mickey mouse

Judging from the researchers' findings, it would be interesting to ask them to do research into whether bears defecate in woods or the Pope is a Catholic....


Interesting but ambiguous. What if after reaching the deal both parties ended up worse off? If the maximum the buyer was allowed to pay was lower than the seller's reserve price, then it is dubious that reaching a deal would create value.

julio c

those guys are researching disconected from the real world, it simply doesn't work in the academic way.when it comes to negotiating I know people die for money and will do everything even faking those subtleties to get goldof course those results work well but only apply for inexperienced and why not MBA students


Any seasoned negotiator worth his pay already knows this, but the researchers are at least on the right track.Productive research will focus on subtleties in verbal (tone, pace, phrasing, etc.) and non-verbal (eye movement, posture, breathing, heart rate, facial expression, etc.) cues and links between the two. Identifying "fingerprints" of these cues that are indicative of certain mental states (i.e. acceptance, rejection, uncertainty, desperation, etc.) would be helpful to those who have honed their awareness of such cues. Ironically, the best negotiators already know these things, but may not be able, or willing, to articulate their knowledge.


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