bias

Bias is an inclination of temperaments or outlook to present or hold a partial perspective at the expense of (possibly equally valid) alternatives in reference to objects, people, or groups. Anything biased generally is one-sided and therefore lacks a neutral point of view. Bias can come in many forms and is often considered to be synonymous with prejudice or bigotry.

The following items are tagged bias.

Mediating Tragedy: Managing the Boston Victim’s Compensation Fund

Posted by & filed under Mediation.

In mid-May, about a month after the Boston Marathon bombings of April 15, lawyer and mediator Kenneth Feinberg stood in an auditorium at the Boston Public Library to address families who had been directly impacted by the tragedy. Feinberg was in charge of administering One Fund Boston, a fund created to distribute donations to the victims.

Negotiation Design Dimensions: A Checklist

Posted by & filed under Sales Negotiations.

Here the Program on Negotiation offers a checklist of negotiation design categories. Whether your overall negotiation design is decide-announce-defend (DAD) or full-consensus (FC), or a hybrid of both, raising these issues is usually preferable to falling into a set of important decisions by default.

Confronting Evil Conference postponed to Saturday, April 20th

Posted by & filed under Events.

Harvard University is closed today due to an ongoing public safety situation in the area. This afternoon’s first session of the “Confronting Evil” conference is postponed until tomorrow morning, starting at 9:00.

Please check here for further updates later today.

Strategies for Negotiating More Rationally

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

In past articles, we have highlighted a variety of psychological biases that affect negotiators, many of which spring from a reliance on intuition.

Of course, negotiators are not always affected by bias; we often think systematically and clearly at the bargaining table.

Managing Group Interactions in Multiparty Negotiations

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

When multiple parties gather to discuss issues, someone has to oversee the group’s efforts, or the process will descend into chaos or stalemate.

A negotiation manager should prepare the group’s agenda, establish ground rules, assign research tasks, summarize conclusions, and represent the process to the outside world.

Taking an Outside View

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Cognitive biases affect even smart and highly educated negotiators. Unfortunately, awareness of our biases is not enough to prevent their having a negative impact on our next negotiation.