Positive feelings are more likely to lead the parties toward more distributive processes.

What is the effect of mood and emotion on negotiations?

Negotiations create and are affected by positive and negative emotions. For example, a cognitive assessment of a good outcome leads parties to feel happy and satisfied. 

Positive emotions generally have positive consequences for negotiations. They are more likely to lead the parties toward more integrative processes; to create a positive attitude toward the other side; to promote persistence in addressing issues and concerns in the negotiation; and to set the stage for successful subsequent negotiations. 

Positive emotions frequently result from procedural aspects of the negotiation process, such as fair procedures during negotiation or favorable social comparisons. 

Negative emotions generally have negative consequences for negotiations. They may lead parties to define the situation as competitive or distributive; undermine a negotiator's ability to analyze the situation accurately, which adversely affects individual outcomes; lead parties to escalate the conflict; or lead parties to retaliate and may thwart integrative outcomes. Negative emotions can also result from being turned off by the other party, feeling bad about the development of the negotiation process and the progress being made, or disliking the results. 

Procedural aspects of the negotiation (such as running into an impasse, or the anxiety of beginning a negotiation) can give rise to negative emotions, such as a competitive mind-set. 

The above statements regarding emotion in negotiation are certainly not always true. 

Positive feelings may have negative consequences and negative feelings may create positive outcomes. A negotiator must be able to recognize and evaluate the effect of emotions on herself and the other party. 

Emotions can be used strategically as negotiation gambits. Given the power that emotions may have in swaying the other side toward one's own point of view, emotions may also be used strategically and manipulatively as influence tactics within a negotiation. 

Negotiators may also engage in the regulation or management of the emotions of the other party.

Back to: Negotiations & Communications

Related Topics

• What is perception in the context of negotiation?
• What is Cognitive Framing in the context of negotiation?
• Mental models of negotiation?
• What are Cognitive Biases in negotiations?
• What is risk and how does risk perception affect a negotiation?
• How do perceptions of entitlement and fairness affect negotiations?
• How does social comparison affect perceptions of fairness?
• What is the effect of mood and emotions in negotiation?
• What role does creativity play in negotiations?

TRUE/FALSE. Write 'T' if the statement is true and 'F' if the statement is false.

Perception is a "sense-making" process; people interpret their environment so they can make

appropriate responses to it.

The perceiver's own needs, desires, motivations, and personal experiences are unlikely to create a

predisposition about the other party in an upcoming negotiation.

Halo effects occur when people generalize about a variety of attributes based on the knowledge of

one attribute of an individual.

Stereotyping and halo effects are examples of perceptual distortion by generalization

Projection occurs when people assign to others the characteristics or feelings that they do not

possess, but wish that they could, themselves.

Stereotyping is the least common distortion of the perceptual process.

The negotiator's own biases

for example, the predisposition to view a handshake as aggressive or

confidentare likely to affect how the other party's behaviour is perceived and interpreted.

A frame is the subjective mechanism through which people evaluate and make sense out of

situations, leading them to pursue or avoid subsequent actions.

Frames emerge and converge as the parties refuse to talk about their preferences and priorities.

One of the ways framing affects negotiation is by influencing how negotiators interpret available

options.

A gain/loss frame affects human behaviour and choice largely through its effect on people's risk

preferences.

A reference point is an arbitrary point used to evaluate an alternative as either a gain or a loss.

In which type of frame would parties be more likely to engage primarily in distributive?

What does the negative emotion usually lead negotiating parties to?

Can positive emotions have a positive effect on negotiations?

What are the positive effects of negotiation?