In Western cultures, many people are uncomfortable with silence. We tend to talk on top of one another, with little pause between point and counterpoint. Any silence that occurs often feels awkward, as you’ve experienced. But effective negotiators know that silence in negotiation can be a useful tool. Here are four advantages of silence.
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Discover step-by-step techniques for avoiding common business negotiation pitfalls when you download a copy of the FREE special report, Business Negotiation Strategies: How to Negotiate Better Business Deals, from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
psychology
The following items are tagged psychology:
Harvard Negotiation Master Class: Advanced Strategies for Experienced Negotiators – November 18–20, 2024
Strictly limited to 60 participants who have completed a prior course in negotiation, this first-of-its-kind program offers unprecedented access to experts from Harvard Law School, MIT, and the Harvard Kennedy School—all of whom are committed to delivering a transformational learning experience.
… Read More
Negotiation Master Class November 2024 Program Guide
Over the years thousands of professionals have participated in negotiation programs at the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School. And after a few months or years of putting their negotiation skills and techniques to work, participants inevitably ask us, what’s next?
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Counteracting Negotiation Biases Like Race and Gender in the Workplace
To learn more about negotiation biases, let’s look back to July of 2018 when the principal flutist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), Elizabeth Rowe, became the first Massachusetts resident to sue her employer under a new state law designed to address the persistent pay gap between men and women.
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What Is Collective Leadership?
When we think of successful leaders, we typically envision a solitary person—a president, CEO, or entrepreneur—drawing on their vision, charisma, and drive to inspire and direct others. As our world grows increasingly more connected and complex, however, this top-down approach to leadership is becoming increasingly outdated.
… Read What Is Collective Leadership?
Negotiation Tools and Techniques: Research Roundup
Recent negotiation research offers negotiation tools and techniques to use in your business negotiations to make strong opening offers, negotiate effectively online, and boost your sense of power.
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Persuasion Tactics in Negotiation: Playing Defense
Persuasion tactics can lead us to make decisions in negotiation that we later regret. Fortunately, there are strategies available that can help us avoid being taken for a ride.
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How to Counter Offer Successfully With a Strong Rationale
In negotiation, some justifications are more persuasive than others, research suggests. And learning how to counter offer in the right way can make significant differences in outcomes.
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Daniel Kahneman Showed Negotiators a More Rational Path
The late psychologist Daniel Kahneman, with his research partner Amos Tversky, spurred a scientific revolution in economics by pinpointing predictable ways in which intuition impairs our judgment. The pair also made key contributions to our understanding of negotiation.
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Cross-Cultural Communication in Business Negotiations
When preparing for cross-cultural communication in business negotiations, we often think long and hard about how our counterpart’s culture might affect what he says and does at the bargaining table.
… Read More
Sales Negotiation Techniques
In sales negotiations, making the first offer is often a smart move. The first offer can anchor the discussion that follows and can have a powerful effect on the final outcome.
… Read Sales Negotiation Techniques
Influence Tactics in Negotiation
Whether we notice them or not, social norms—the rules of behavior deemed acceptable in society—strongly influence our behavior. We automatically lower our voices when we enter a library and raise them at football games. We arrive at work on time but show up to dinner parties half an hour late. We stop at red lights … Read Influence Tactics in Negotiation
Perspective Taking and Empathy in Business Negotiations
We are often counseled to engage in perspective taking and empathetic understanding to achieve better results in business negotiations, both for ourselves and for our counterparts. Yet perspective taking and empathy are two different skills. Perspective taking is a cognitive ability that involves considering how other people think. Empathy, by contrast, involves emotionally connecting with … Read More
Best Negotiation Books: A Negotiation Reading List
Whether you are facing negotiations with Congress, colleagues, customers, or family members, the following negotiation books, published in recent years by experts from the Program on Negotiation, offer new perspectives on common negotiating dilemmas.
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Dispute Resolution on Facebook: Using a Negotiation Approach to Resolve a Conflict
For several years, Facebook has been working with social scientists to bring traditional methods of dispute resolution to cyberspace. The site has begun to offer users tools to resolve disputes with one another over offensive or upsetting posts, including insults and photos.
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How Timing Can Influence the Anchoring Effect
Back on July 11, 2000, we were offered an excellent case study on the anchoring effect when U.S. president Bill Clinton welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to a summit at Camp David aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once and for all. The summit covered various contentious issues, … Read How Timing Can Influence the Anchoring Effect
Dear Negotiation Coach: How to Find a Compromise in Negotiation
Negotiators seeking to get beyond impasse sometimes assume that postponing the deadline for agreement will help them together. Our Negotiation Coach for this issue, Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino, explains why this may not be the case.
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Dear Negotiation Coach: Building Trust with Reluctant Counterparts
Tetsushi Okumura is a professor at the Tokyo University of Science and has been a visiting scholar at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. His research articles have appeared in leading management and psychology journals, and he has translated into Japanese many popular books on negotiation. Recently, Okumura has been interviewing Japanese government negotiators to … Read More
Dear Negotiation Coach: Will a Flexible Schedule Change Salary Expectations?
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, remote work and flexible schedules were gaining popularity. While plenty of surveys tout the popularity of this flexibility, Alexandre Mas, Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University and Amanda Pallais, Professor of Economics at Harvard University put it to the test to find out if employees would lower … Read More
Dear Negotiation Coach: When Time is Not Money at the Negotiation Table
Q: I have been doing a lot of business deals in the Middle East and elsewhere in Asia. With all due respect, negotiations seem to drag on and on in that part of the world. How can I negotiate effectively in this situation at the negotiation table?
A: You’ve picked up on a critical cultural difference that, … Read More
Ask A Negotiation Expert: The Accidental Negotiation Expert
For 17 years, Katherine Shonk has been the editor of Negotiation Briefings. The author of two works of fiction (The Red Passport and Happy Now?), she is leaving her post after this issue to devote more time to her next novel and other editing work. Katherine will continue to share negotiation lessons in blog posts … Read More
How to Keep Lines of Communication Open at the Thanksgiving Dinner Table
Over the next couple months, many families around the world will be coming together around a table to break bread. The topic of politics, especially in the U.S. will be practically unavoidable while passing the mashed potatoes, but there are ways to facilitate friendly rules.
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Negotiation Research You Can Use: Should you tell them a story?
Salespeople and advertisers have come up with a range of persuasion strategies that help close deals, from alluding to a product’s popularity to prompting concessions by offering potential customers “free gifts.” These strategies and others have proven useful for business negotiators who are trying to shine the best light on their offers.
Another effective strategy can be … Read More
Negotiation Techniques and Tactics: Power Plays
Imagine you’re a chef who is having trouble finding cooks in an oversaturated restaurant market. You’re so desperate to get fully staffed that you find yourself making significant concessions on salary, scheduling, and other issues during interviews with potential hires.
… Read Negotiation Techniques and Tactics: Power Plays
Negotiation Training with Heart
In typical negotiation skills training, we are taught to get beyond our emotions and look at situations rationally. There’s merit to this approach, of course, as feelings can cloud our judgment. But consider what Lieutenant Jack Cambria, who retired in August as the longest-running head of the New York Police Department’s (NYPD’s) hostage negotiation team, … Read Negotiation Training with Heart
Negotiation research you can use: In negotiations with friends, it may pay to lower your expectations
When buying a used car, would you rather negotiate with a friend or a stranger? We might expect that we’d get a better deal from the friend, whether because we’d communicate with ease or because our friend would give us a “friend discount.”
But in fact, negotiations between friends and others in a close relationship are notoriously inefficient, … Read More
Teach Your Students Negotiation Psychology
The negotiation psychology of the parties at the table can contribute significantly to the likelihood of reaching an agreement. In Beyond Reason, world-renowned negotiator Roger Fisher and psychologist Daniel Shapiro advise “ignore emotions at your own peril. Emotions are always present and often affect your experience. You may try to ignore them, but they will not … Read Teach Your Students Negotiation Psychology
Bullard Houses Role-Play Simulation Helps Researchers Explore Gender Inequality
In a recent Slate.com article, writer and PhD in Psychology Jane Hu described the findings of a research study by Professor Laura J. Kray, University of California, Berkeley.
Kray, along with co-authors Jessica Kennedy, PhD, and Alex Van Zant, PhD, investigated the role gender played in negotiation and focused specifically on whether the stereotype of women … Read More
Integrative Negotiation Examples: MESOs and Expanding the Pie
In our society, we’re bombarded with a multitude of decisions each day, beginning with the increasingly complex question of how to order our morning coffee. In his book The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less (Ecco, 2004), Swarthmore College psychology professor Barry Schwartz describes the contemporary phenomenon of becoming exhausted by “the tyranny of … Read More
PON Faculty Daniel Shapiro Named One of the 15 Best Professors at Harvard College by the Harvard Crimson’s Fifteen Minutes Magazine
The Harvard Crimson’s Fifteen Minutes magazine recently honored Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School faculty member Daniel Shapiro as one of the 15 best professors at Harvard College. Director of the Harvard International Negotiation Program and Associate Professor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School, Professor Shapiro is the author of Negotiating the Nonnegotiable: How … Read More
Negotiation Research Demonstrates the Impact of Memory on Decision Making Processes in Bargaining Scenarios
Recent negotiation research published by Psychological Science from Program on Negotiation faculty member and assistant professor at Harvard University’s Department of Psychology Joshua Greene and his colleague Elinor Amit explores the impact vivid mental imagery has on decision-making processes for negotiators. The negotiation skills insights that can be obtained from such negotiation research are many … Read More
On Its Head: Teaching Negotiation in a Flipped Classroom
After my experience flipping this class, I came away with the following lessons:
1. Negotiation is a very suitable topic for this type of methodology.
2. This approach helps students who are audio and visual learners.
3. The in-class one-on-one time allows instructors to really work with students on specific problems and challenges.
4. Class size may present a … Read More
Emotion in Negotiations: How to Detect Sincerity at the Bargaining Table
Following the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in the spring of 2010, some media observers criticized President Barack Obama for seeming to be emotionally detached. Obama ultimately did display anger about the oil spill in a televised interview, only to be further critiqued on the grounds that his anger did not … Read More
Bridging the Religious Divide: Transforming Conflict when Emotions and Religion are at Play
The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, the Harvard International Negotiation Program, and the Religions and the Practice of Peace Colloquium are pleased to host: Bridging the Religious Divide: Transforming Conflict when Emotions and Religion are at Play
with
Daniel L. Shapiro Director, Harvard International Negotiation Program Associate Professor of Psychology, Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital and
Rev. Septemmy E. Lakawa
Research Associate … Read More
Identity, Culture and Conflict Resolution
The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School is pleased to host the New England Association for Conflict Resolution 2015 Fall Program: Identity, Culture and Conflict Resolution Wednesday, October 21, 2015 UPDATED Schedule Registration – 6:30 – 7:15 pm NE-ACR Fall Program – 7:15 pm to 9:20 pm Location: Austin Hall North, Harvard Law School Free and open to the public.
Pre-registration encouraged, … Read Identity, Culture and Conflict Resolution
Announcing the 2015 PON Summer Fellows
About the PON Summer Fellowship Program:
PON offers fellowship grants to students at Harvard University, MIT, Tufts University and other Boston-area schools who are doing internships or undertaking summer research projects in negotiation and dispute resolution in partnership with public, non-profit or academic organizations. The Summer Fellowship Program’s emphasis is on advancing the links between scholarship … Read Announcing the 2015 PON Summer Fellows
Announcing the 2015-2016 PON Graduate Research Fellows
The Program on Negotiation Graduate Research Fellowships are designed to encourage young scholars from the social sciences and professional disciplines to pursue theoretical, empirical, and/or applied research in negotiation and dispute resolution. Consistent with the PON goal of fostering the development of the next generation of scholars, this program provides support for one year of … Read More
New Findings in the Field of Negotiation: Session One
The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School is pleased to present: New Findings in the Field of Negotiation: Research from the PON Graduate Research Fellows with
Vera Mironova PhD candidate in political science at the University of Maryland and
Abbie Wazlawek PhD candidate in management at Columbia Business School and
Boshko Stankovski
PhD candidate in politics and international studies at University of Cambridge
Tuesday, April 21
12:00 – 1:30 … Read More
“Making Conflict Work”: A Book Talk with Dr. Peter Coleman
The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School is pleased to present: Making Conflict Work: Harnessing the Power of Disagreement with Dr. Peter Coleman
Thursday, April 9
12:00 – 1:15 PM
Hauser 102
Harvard Law School Campus
Free and open to the public.
About the book:
Work conflict is risky. It can go bad and poison employee health, work relationships and organizational climates, or … Read More
Reflections of a Mediator: Preventive Diplomacy in an Age of Conflict
The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School is pleased to present: Reflections of a Mediator: Preventive Diplomacy in an Age of Conflict with
Dr. Johnston Barkat Assistant Secretary-General United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
12:15 – 1:30PM
Pound Hall 100
Harvard Law School campus
Free and open to the public. A non-pizza lunch will be provided.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Johnston Barkat is the Assistant Secretary-General heading … Read More
“Confronting Evil” Panel Videos Now Available on YouTube
On Saturday, April 20, 2013, the Program on Negotiation co-hosted a conference on “Confronting Evil: Interdisciplinary Perspectives,” in partnership with the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University and the Volkswagen Foundation.
… Read More
“Confronting Evil” Panel Videos Now Available Online
On Saturday, April 20, 2013, the Program on Negotiation co-hosted a conference on “Confronting Evil: Interdisciplinary Perspectives,” in partnership with the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University and the Volkswagen Foundation.
Originally scheduled to commence on Friday, April 19th, the conference had to be condensed to a single day due to the lock-down of the Boston … Read More
PON co-sponsored conference addresses the challenges of “Confronting Evil”
On Saturday, April 20th more than a hundred people came out to Harvard to attend the PON co-sponsored conference “Confronting Evil: Interdisciplinary Perspectives.” Held just six days after the bombings at the Boston Marathon, and one day after many area residents were asked to “shelter in place” by the police during their search for the … Read More
Confronting Evil: Interdisciplinary Perspectives Conference underway
Today’s Confronting Evil: Interdisciplinary Conference will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Emerson Hall on the Harvard University Campus. All four panels will be presented today.
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Coping with negotiator emotion, both fake and fleeting
Following the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in the spring of 2010, some media observers criticized President Barack Obama for seeming to be emotionally detached. Obama ultimately did display anger about the oil spill in a televised interview, only to be further critiqued on the grounds that his anger did not … Read More
Covering Conflict: War, Storytelling and the Impact of Witnessing Violence
Reuters photographer Finbarr O’Reilly and Dr. Bessel A. van der Kolk, Medical Director of the Boston Trauma Center, will discuss the emotional toll of war, how trauma affects brain and body alike, and what it takes to witness and narrate violent struggle in the world.
… Read More
Who’s Watching? How Onlookers Affect Team Talks: Negotiating in Front of Allies and Enemies
Imagine that you and a colleague get in an argument about the layout of a final report in front of a coworker you both like. Now suppose the same argument occurs in front of someone your colleague likes but you do not or vice versa – in front of an ally who is your colleague’s … Read More
The Five Percent: Finding Solutions to Seemingly Impossible Conflicts
“The Five Percent: Finding Solutions to Seemingly Impossible Conflicts” with Dr. Peter T. Coleman Director of the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution and Professor of Psychology and Education at Columbia University When: Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Time: 12 – 1 p.m.
Where: Wasserstein Hall, Room B10, Harvard Law School Campus
Please bring your lunch. Drinks and desserts provided.
One … Read More
Militias in Northern Ireland: Guiding Combatants from Violence to Politics
PON Brown Bag Lunch Series Presents: Militias in Northern Ireland:
Guiding Combatants from Violence to Politics with Rev. Dr. Gary Mason
When: Friday, November 4 Time: 12:00 — 1:30 p.m. Where: Pound Hall, Room 108 (Baker), Harvard Law School Campus Please bring your lunch. Drinks and desserts provided.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Rev. Dr. Gary Mason has spent 24 years as a Methodist pastor in … Read More
Announcing the 2011-2012 PON Graduate Research Fellows
The Program on Negotiation Graduate Research Fellowships are designed to encourage young scholars from the social sciences and professional disciplines to pursue theoretical, empirical, and/or applied research in negotiation and dispute resolution. Consistent with the PON goal of fostering the development of the next generation of scholars, this program provides support for one year of … Read More
Shapiro named 2011 Burke Global Health Fellow
Professor Daniel Shapiro, Associate Director of the Harvard Mediation Project, has been selected as one of four 2011 Burke Global Health Fellows by the Harvard Global Health Institute. During his fellowship, Professor Shapiro will develop materials for a new Harvard course designed to train leaders on how to mediate conflicts with a strong emotional or … Read Shapiro named 2011 Burke Global Health Fellow
Stumbling Into Bad Behavior
In an op-ed article in today’s edition of The New York Times, Max H. Bazerman, Straus Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, and Ann E. Tenbrunsel, Martin Professor of Business Ethics at the University of Notre Dame, discuss the reasons why ethical lapses occur so often in business settings.
According to … Read Stumbling Into Bad Behavior
Max Bazerman Discusses “Blind Spots” at the Harvard Book Store
The Harvard Book Store presents
“Blind Spots” with Max Bazerman
Date: Monday, April 18, 2011
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
See Event Details Online: http://www.harvard.com/event/max_h._bazerman/
About the Book:
When confronted with an ethical dilemma, most of us like to think we would stand up for our principles. But we are not as ethical as we think we are. In “Blind … Read More
Event: The Psychology of Nazi Doctors
The Harvard Institute on Global Health (HIGH) and the Harvard International Negotiation Program Present: “On Embracing Evil: The Psychology of Nazi Doctors” with Robert Jay Lifton moderated by Professor Dan Shapiro
What impels people to use religion, ideology, or professional privilege as tools for destructive action? What is the mindset that can take one from healing to killing, or to … Read Event: The Psychology of Nazi Doctors
Shakespeare and Negotiation
“Shakespeare and Negotiation”
with Leo Smyth A not-too-serious concoction of Readings and Reflections on some Shakespearean ideas about the handling of disputes.
Date: September 21, 2010
Time: 12:00PM to 1:00PM
Where: Pound Hall, Room 512, Harvard Law School Campus
Bring your lunch. Drinks and dessert will be served.
Click here for a campus map.
Speaker Bio
Leo Smyth obtained his Master’s degree in psychology … Read Shakespeare and Negotiation
When Emotions Converge
Adapted from “I Know Exactly How You Feel,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.
Theorists have long distinguished one-shot deals from repeated negotiations. People who know they’ll never see one another again may be tempted to take advantage of one another, for example. By contrast, parties in ongoing relationships, even ones that have a competitive edge, … Read When Emotions Converge
2010 Winner of the Raiffa Doctoral Student Paper Award
The Program on Negotiation would like to congratulate Nour Kteily for his paper entitled “Getting to the Table: Factors Affecting the Willingness of Israelis and Palestinians to Negotiate.” Nour is a Ph.D. Psychology candidate in the Department of Psychology at Harvard.
About the Award:
The annual prize of $1000 is awarded to a doctoral student author of … Read More
Is that really what you want?
Adapted from “You Need to Know What You Want,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.
Do you really know what you want out of life? Most of us don’t, according to Timothy D. Wilson and Daniel T. Gilbert, psychology professors at the University of Virginia and Harvard University, respectively. The impact bias describes the common, systematic … Read Is that really what you want?
Allies and Enemies
Imagine that you and a colleague get into an argument about the layout of a final report in front of a coworker you both like. Now suppose the same argument occurs in front of someone your colleague likes but you do not or vice versa—in front of an ally who is your colleague’s foe. As … Read Allies and Enemies
Summary of Mediation Pedagogy Conference Participant Survey Results
To better understand the teaching needs of the mediation community, Negotiation Pedagogy at the Program on Negotiation (NP@PON) organized a Mediation Pedagogy Conference in May of 2009. In advance of the conference, an 18-question online survey was sent to the 175 conference presenters and registered participants. The 75% response rate allowed us to illuminate important … Read More
Gender in Negotiation and Decision Making Research Seminar
The research seminar on Gender in Negotiation and Decision Making is jointly sponsored by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School.
Michael Morris is the Chavkin-Chang Professor of Leadership in the Columbia Business School as well as a Professor in the Psychology Department … Read More
Conflict Management in South Asia: A Discussion of Mercy Corps CMG’s Programs in the Region
Dr. Rebecca Wolfe is a Senior Program Officer with Mercy Corps Conflict Management Group. She is responsible for developing and implementing conflict management programs, including writing proposals, designing assessments, conducting evaluations and designing and delivering trainings. Since joining Mercy Corps, she has spent the majority of her time working in Asia, including Sri Lanka, Nepal, … Read More
Negotiation and Leadership
NEGOTIATION MASTER CLASS
Negotiation Essentials Online
Beyond the Back Table: Working with People and Organizations to Get to Yes
Articles & Insights
BATNA
- Business Negotiations
- Conflict Resolution
- Crisis Negotiations
- Dealing with Difficult People
- Ethics in Negotiations: How to Deal with Deception at the Bargaining Table
- Dealing with Difficult People: Coping with an Insulting Offer in Contract Negotiations
- Trust and Honesty in Negotiations: Dealing with Dishonest Negotiators
- Bargaining in Bad Faith: Dealing with “False Negotiators”
- How to Renegotiate a Bad Deal
- Dealmaking
- Dispute Resolution
- International Negotiation
- Top International Negotiation Examples: The East China Sea Dispute
- Negotiation Case Studies: The Bangladesh Factory-Safety Agreements
- Political Negotiation: Negotiating with Bureaucrats
- International Arbitration: What it is and How it Works
- Diplomatic Negotiations: The Surprising Benefits of Conflict and Teamwork at the Negotiation Table
- Leadership Skills
- Mediation
- How Mediation Works When Both Parties Agree They Need Help Resolving the Dispute
- Negotiations and Logrolling: Discover Opportunities to Generate Mutual Gains
- What is Med-Arb?
- Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Training: Mediation Curriculum
- Why is Negotiation Important: Mediation in Transactional Negotiations
- Negotiation Skills
- Negotiation Training
- Ethics and Negotiation: 5 Principles of Negotiation to Boost Your Bargaining Skills in Business Situations
- 3-D Negotiation Strategy
- The Importance of a Relationship in Negotiation
- Use a Negotiation Preparation Worksheet for Continuous Improvement
- 10 Negotiation Training Skills Every Organization Needs
- Salary Negotiations
- Teaching Negotiation
- Power Asymmetry and the Principal Agent Problem
- Check Out the All-In-One Curriculum Packages – Available for Some of Our Most Popular Simulations
- Labor Relations: Negotiating Collective Bargaining Agreements
- Teach Your Students to Take Their Mediation Skills to the Next Level
- Asynchronous Learning: Negotiation Exercises to Keep Students Engaged Outside the Classroom
- Win-Win Negotiations