Negotiators seeking to break through the mythical fixed-pie mindset can try the following three proven strategies, suggested by Max Bazerman for finding mutually beneficial tradeoffs.
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Learn how to negotiate like a diplomat, think on your feet like an improv performer, and master job offer negotiation like a professional athlete when you download a copy of our FREE special report, Negotiation Skills: Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques to Help You Become a Better Negotiator, from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
anchoring effect
Anchoring is a cognitive bias that describes the common human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the "anchor") when making decisions. During decision making, anchoring occurs when individuals use an initial piece of information to make subsequent judgments. Once an anchor is set, other judgments are made by adjusting away from that anchor, and there is a bias toward interpreting other information around the anchor. For example, the initial price offered for a used car sets the standard for the rest of the negotiations, so that prices lower than the initial price seem more reasonable even if they are still higher than what the car is really worth.
The following items are tagged anchoring effect
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An Example of the Anchoring Effect
People tend to irrationally fixate on the first number put forth in a negotiation—the anchor—no matter how arbitrary it may be. Even when we know the anchor has limited relevance, we fail to sufficiently adjust our judgments away from it. This is the anchoring effect.
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Top 10 Negotiation Skills You Must Learn to Succeed
Increasingly, business negotiators recognize that the most effective bargainers are skilled at both creating value and claiming value—that is, they both collaborate and compete. The following 10 negotiation skills will help you succeed at integrative negotiation.
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Dealmaking and the Anchoring Effect in Negotiations
The following question regarding the anchoring effect was asked of Program on Negotiation faculty member and Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School professor Guhan Subramanian.
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Price Anchoring 101
Opening offers have a strong effect in price negotiations. The first offer typically serves as an anchor that strongly influences the discussion that follows. In research documenting price anchoring, psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky found that even random numbers can have a dramatic impact on people’s subsequent judgments and decisions.
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An Example of the Anchoring Effect – What to Share in Negotiation
The prospect of sharing information with a negotiating counterpart can be scary – it can fix your counterpart into a position at the negotiation table you didn’t intend (an example of the anchoring effect).
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Business Negotiation Solutions: Coping with Low Power
In business negotiations, a little power is better than none at all, right? After all, if talks with a prospective client fail, we’d rather have a few unpromising leads to turn to rather than none.
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Make the Most of Your Salary Negotiations
What salary negotiation skills can you use if a potential employer asks you about your past salary? If you earned a competitive wage, your concern may be whether the new employer can afford you.
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Example of the Anchoring Effect and How it Can Impact Your Negotiation
Goal setting affects performance. In a review of goal-setting research, negotiation scholars Deborah Zetik and Alice Stuhlmacher of DePaul University found that when negotiators set specific, challenging goals, they consistently outperform those who set lower or vague goals.
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The Advantages of Bias at the Negotiation Table
What impact do cognitive biases have on bargaining scenarios? Work by negotiation researchers Russell B. Korobkin of UCLA and Chris P. Guthrie of Vanderbilt University suggests how to turn knowledge of four specific biases into tools of persuasion.
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Negotiation Techniques: The First Offer Dilemma in Negotiations
The first offer dilemma in negotiations – should you make the first offer? Few questions related to negotiation techniques and negotiation strategies have yielded more academic attention and debate among practitioners in negotiation research.
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The Anchoring Bias Can Get Talks off to a Strong Start
Should you make the first offer in a negotiation? Typically yes, abundant research on the anchoring bias suggests. What is anchoring in negotiation? In negotiations centered on price or another figure, the party who moves first typically benefits by “anchoring” the discussion that follows on her offer—even if the anchor is arbitrary. For example, the … Read More
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Compensation Negotiation Tips for Salary Bargaining
Job candidates are often eager for compensation negotiation tips, and with good reason: they tend to be at a bargaining disadvantage relative to the hiring organization. Due to the well-documented anchoring effect, the first figure introduced into the discussion can strongly influence the final outcome—and the wage or wage range cited by employers is likely … Read More
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How to Create Value at the Negotiation Table: Strategies for Creating Win-Win Negotiations
While you might choose many processes for conducting your negotiations, we recommend the following three steps of a mutual-gains approach to negotiations:
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Satisficing and Negotiation
It stands to reason that devoting less time to relatively unimportant choices should free you up for more meaningful pursuits and increase your overall satisfaction. But how does the concept of satisficing apply to your most important decisions and negotiations?
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Negotiation Advice: When to Make the First Offer in Negotiation
When or when not to make the first offer in negotiations is a question many expert negotiators ask themselves when approaching business negotiations, real estate transactions, or even interpersonal negotiations with friends and family. In this article drawn from negotiation research, we offer negotiating skills and negotiation tips for when, and when not, to make … Read More
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What’s Keeping You from Closing the Deal?
When talks stall, it’s tempting to jump to conclusions: “It’s purely a price gap.” “They’re being unreasonable.” “We’re not communicating well.” “We’re in a weak position.”
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Integrative Negotiation Examples: Making Wise Bets on the Future in Bargaining Scenarios
A town government and a private fuel-oil company have a standing contract that they have renewed for several years in a row. The contract is again up for renewal, and the town manager is under pressure from his constituents to reduce the city’s heating costs and avoid tax increases.
The city’s fuel-oil consumption has remained … Read More
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Tough Negotiation Tips from Jennifer Aniston?
Fans of the television show Friends got a treat last month when Netflix made all 236 episodes of the blockbuster hit available to stream online. At first glance actors Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston and the rest of the star-studded cast might not be your first pick to peg as formidable negotiators, but at the height … Read More
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The Enduring Power of Anchors
In past issues of Negotiation, we’ve reviewed the anchoring effect – the tendency for negotiators to be overly influenced by the other side’s opening bid, however arbitrary. When your opponent makes an inappropriate bid on your house, you’re nonetheless likely to begin searching for data that confirms the anchor’s viability. This testing is likely to … Read More
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Anchors Away?
Adapted from “The Enduring Power of Anchors,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter, October 2006.
In the Negotiation newsletter, we have reviewed the anchoring effect—the tendency for negotiators to be overly influenced by the other side’s opening bid, however arbitrary. When your opponent makes an inappropriate bid on your house, you’re nonetheless likely to begin searching … Read More
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Making the first move
Adapted from “Should You Make the First Offer?” by Adam D. Galinsky (Professor, Northwestern University). First published in Negotiation Newsletter.
Whether negotiators are bidding on a firm, seeking agreement on a compensation package, or bargaining over a used car, someone has to make the first offer. Should it be you, or should you wait to … Read More
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Articles & Insights
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- Business Negotiations
- Conflict Resolution
- Crisis Negotiations
- Famous Negotiations Cases – NBA and the Power of Deadlines at the Bargaining Table
- What is Crisis Management in Negotiation?
- Police Negotiation Techniques from the NYPD Crisis Negotiations Team
- Crisis Negotiation Skills: The Hostage Negotiator’s Drill
- In This Greece Crisis Negotiation, Tough Conditions May Have Affected the Deal
- Dealing with Difficult People
- Negotiation Strategies: Bernie Sanders’ Pragmatic Approach to Negotiating in the Senate
- Managing Difficult Employees: Listening to Learn
- Dealing with Difficult People and Negotiation: When Should You Give Up the Fight?
- Thoughts from Harvard Business School Faculty Member James Sebenius: A Negotiated Solution to the Government Shutdown
- Ethics in Negotiations: How to Deal with Deception at the Bargaining Table
- Dealmaking
- Types of Power in Negotiation: Chaos Theory and Bargaining Scenarios
- Writing the Negotiated Agreement
- Claiming Value in Negotiation: Do Extreme Requests Backfire?
- MESO Negotiation: The Benefits of Making Multiple Equivalent Simultaneous Offers in Business Negotiations
- How Does Mediation Work in a Lawsuit?
- Dispute Resolution
- Top 10 Dispute Resolution Skills
- Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Techniques: Negotiating Conditions
- Negotiation Ethics: How to Navigate Ethical Dilemmas at the Bargaining Table
- Cultural Barriers and Conflict Negotiation Strategies: Apple’s Apology in China
- Diagnose Your Negotiation Techniques and Negotiation Style
- International Negotiation
- Diplomatic Negotiations: The Surprising Benefits of Conflict and Teamwork at the Negotiation Table
- Negotiation Analysis: The US, Taliban, and the Bergdahl Exchange
- Cross Cultural Negotiations in International Business: Four Negotiation Tips for Bargaining in China
- How to Overcome Cross Cultural Barriers in Negotiation
- Famous Negotiators: Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin
- Leadership Skills
- Challenges Facing Women Negotiators
- Negotiation Skills and Bargaining Techniques from Female Executives
- Negotiations, Gender, and Status at the Bargaining Table
- “Getting to Yes” Author Bill Ury on the Government Shutdown
- Leadership Skills in Negotiation: How to Negotiate Equity Incentives with Senior Management
- Mediation
- Alternative Dispute Resolution: Values-Based Role Play Simulations for Improving Mediation Skills
- Arbitration vs Mediation: The Definition of Mediation as a Problem Solving Process
- Negotiations and Logrolling: Discover Opportunities to Generate Mutual Gains
- What is Med-Arb?
- What Makes a Good Mediator?
- Negotiation Skills
- Negotiation Training
- Salary Negotiations
- Teaching Negotiation
- Win-Win Negotiations
- Break a Competitive Cycle with Win-Win Negotiation Strategies
- Win-Win Negotiation Skills: Motivate Good Behavior in the #MeToo Era
- 5 Win-Win Negotiation Strategies
- Google’s Negotiations with Groupon: How Business Negotiators Can Maximize Value Claiming When Engaging in Integrative Negotiations
- Win Win Negotiation: Managing Your Counterpart’s Satisfaction