Keith Murnighan

The following items are tagged Keith Murnighan.

Anchor Trials or Balloons in Conflict Resolution

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

The power of anchors in negotiation has been demonstrated time and again. Sellers who demand more tend to get more. Indeed, the initial asking price is usually the best predictor of the final agreement.

A trio of researchers may have found an important exception to this rule, however; lower starting numbers set by the seller in an auction can lead to higher ultimate prices. Professors Gillian Ku of the London Business School and Adam D. Galinsky and J. Keith Murnighan of Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management found this result both in laboratory experiments and from data taken from online eBay auctions.

Getting Off on the Wrong Foot

Posted by & filed under Meeting Facilitation.

Sometimes negotiators get off on the wrong foot. Maybe you and your partner had a different understanding of your meeting time, or one of you makes a statement that the other misinterprets. Such awkward moves at the beginning of an interaction can lead one party to question the other side’s motives.

In a recent article, Robert Lount, Chen-Bo Zhong, J. Keith Murnighan, and Niro Sivanathan, all of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, examined trust building in negotiation.

Fault Lines in Group Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Conflict Management.

Group negotiations are a fact of managerial life, yet the outcomes of teamwork are highly unpredictable. Sometimes, groups cohere, reaching novel solutions to nagging problems, and sometimes infighting causes them to collapse. How can you predict when conflict will emerge in groups, and what can you do to stop it?

The link between happiness and negotiation success

Posted by & filed under Daily, Negotiation Skills.

Adapted from “How Mood Affects Negotiator Trust,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter, September 2006.

Social psychologists are learning a great deal about the connections among emotions, negotiation strategies, and decision making. Negotiation contributor Jennifer S. Lerner of Carnegie Mellon University and her colleagues have identified two critical themes. First, they have studied the carryover of

Dropping anchors

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations, Daily.

Adapted from “Anchors or Trial Balloons?”, first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

The power of anchors in negotiation has been demonstrated time and again. Sellers who demand more tend to get more. Indeed, the initial asking price is usually the best predictor of the final agreement.

A trio of researchers may have found an important exception

Get off on the right foot

Posted by & filed under Daily, Meeting Facilitation.

Adapted from an article first published in “Negotiation Newsletter”.

Sometimes negotiators get off on the wrong foot. Maybe you and your partner had different understanding of your meeting time, or one of you makes a statement that the other misinterprets. Such awkward moves at the beginning of an interaction can lead one party to question the

PPIN Speaker Murnighan on Live and Online Auction Bidding

Posted by & filed under Events.

Keith Murnighan will be the February speaker at the Seminar on Psychological Processes in Negotiation. He is the Harold J. Hines Jr. Distinguished Professor of Risk Management at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University. The title of his presentation is Live and Internet Auction Bidding: Experimental and Field Studies, based on a paper