SPOTLIGHT December 2016 | Harvard Business Review South AsieHARSASIA.ORG = ‘Alison Wood Brooke i ‘an assatant professor at Harvard dusiness Schoo ‘She teaches negotiation inthe MBA and exacutve ‘education eurcula and 'safiited withthe Behavioral insights Group. Emotion and the Art of Negotiation How to use your feelings to your advantage by Alison Wood Brooks TiS, witHOUT QUESTION, my favorite day of the semester—the ‘day when I teach my MBA students a negotiation exercise called “tlonoring the Contract” assign students to partners, and each reads different account ‘of a (fictitious) troubled relationship between a supplier (a manu- facturer of computer components) and a client (a search engine start-up). They leatn that the two patties signed a detailed con- ‘act eight months earlier, but now they're at odds over several of the terms (sales volume, pricing, product reliability, and energy efficiency specs). Each student assumes the role of ether client ot supplier and receives confidential information about company financesand poli- tics. Then each pairis tasked with renegotiating —a process that could lead toan amended deal, termination of the contract, or expensive litigation, December 2015 | Harvard Business Review South Asia 47‘SPOTLIGHT ON THE SOFTER SIDE OF NEGOTIATION 48 Harvard Businoss Review South Asia | De ‘What makes this simulation intresting, however, lies not nthe details ofthe case butin the top-secret \nstretions given to one side of each pairing before the exercise begins: “Pleasestart the negotiation with display ofanger. You must display anger fora min ‘mum of 10 minutes at the beginning.” The instruc- tions goon to give specific tips for showing anger: Interrupt the other party. Call her “unfit” or “unrea sonable” Blame her personally forthe disagreement Raise your voice Before the negotiations begin, [spread the pairs allover the buildingso thatthe students can't see hhow others are behaving. Then, as the pairs negoti- ate, walk around and observe. Although some star dents struggle, many arespectacularly good atfeign- ing anger. They waga finger in thei partner's face. ‘They pace around. I'veneverseen the exercise result ina physical confrontation—but it has come close. Some ofthe negotiators who did nat get thesecretin- structionsreactby tryingtodefuse the other person's anger. But some react angrily themselves—and it's amazing how quickly the emotional espanses esca- late. When Tbring everyone back int the classroom after 30 minutes, there are always students stil yell ingat each other or shaking their heads in disbelit. ‘uring the debriefing we survey the pairsto see hhow angey they felt and how they fared in resolv- ing the problem. Often, the more anger the parties showed, the mor ikly it was thatthe negotiation ‘ended poorly—for example, in litigation or an im- passe (no deal). Once I've clued the entire class in ‘on the setup, discussion invariably makes its way to thiskey insight: Bringing anger toa negotiations like throwing abomb into the process, andit'saptto havea profoundeffectonthe outcome. Until 20 years ago, few researchers pail much attention to the role of emotions in negotiating how feelings can influence the way people over- come conflict, reach agreement, and create value ‘when dealing with another party. Instead, nego tiation scholars focused primarily on strategy and tacties—particulany the waysin which parties can identify and consderaltematives, useleverage, and ‘execute the choreography of offers and counter: offers. Scientific understanding of negotiation also tended to home in on the transactional nature of working outa deal: how to get the most money or profit from the process. Even when experts started Tooking at psychological influences on negotiations, they focused on diffuse and nonspecific moods— such as whether negotiators felt generally positive ‘or negative, and how that affected their behavior. Over the past decade, however, tesearchers have begun examining how specific emotions—anger, sadness, disappointment, anxiety, envy, excitement, and regret—can affect the behavior of negotiators. ‘They've studied the differences between what hap- ‘pens when people simply feel these emotions and ‘what happens when they also express them to the other party through words or actions. In negotia- tions that are less transactional and involve parties in long-term relationships, understanding the role of emotions is even more important than itis in ‘transactional deal making, ‘This newbranch of research i provingextremely useful. Weall have the ability to regulate how we ex- perience emotions, and specificstrategies can help us {improve tremendously in that regard. We also have some control over the extent to which we express our feetings—and again, there are specific ways to cloak (or emphasize) an expression of emotion when doing so may be advantageous. For instance, re- search shows that feeling or looking anxious results {n suboptimal negotiation outcomes. So individuals who are prone to anxiety when brokering deal can take certain stepsboth tolimit theirnervousnessand tomakeitless obvious totheir negotiation opponent. ‘Thesameis true forotheremotions. In the pages that follow, Idiscuss—and share cop- ing strategies for—many of the emotions people typ ically feel over the course ofa negotiation, Anxiety is most likely tocrop up before the process begins or duringits early stages. We're prone to experience an. {gor or excitementin the heat of the discussions. And ‘we're most likely to feel disappointment, sadness, or regretin the aftermath. Bringing anger to a negotiation is like throwing a bomb into the process, and it’s apt to have a profound effect on the outcome. mber 2015eMo1 NN AND THE ART OF NEG: Idea in Brief ‘THE PROBLEM NEW FINDINGS RECOMMENDATIONS. "Negotiators typically focus Research shows that we can _Be aware of the emotions on strategy, tactics, offers, and counteroffers and don't pay enough attention to how ‘emotions affect what happens at the bargaining table. otter deals, regulate the anxiety, anger, ‘excitement, disappointment, or regret we may feel and express inthe course ofa negotiation— and doing so can help us make that negotiators commonly ‘experience and how displays ‘of emation may be perceived. ‘Then take specific steps to respond. For example, feeling or looking anxious weakens your bargaining power, so prepare and rehearse to stay calm, of ask a third party to negotiate for you. Avoiding Anxiety Anxiety sa stateof distress in reaction to threatening stimull,particulatly novel situations that have the potential for undesirable outcomes, In contrast to ‘anger, which motivates people to escalate conflict (he “fight” part of the fight-or-light response), anxiety trips the “ight” switch and makes people ‘want toexitthe scene, Because patience and persistence ae often de sirable when negotiating, the urge to exit quickly is counterproductive. But the negative effects of feel: {nganxious while negotiating may go further. In my recent research, wondered if anxious negotiators alsodevelop low aspirations and expectations, which couldlead them tomake timid ist offers—a behavior that directly predicts poor negotiating outcomes, Im work with Maurice Schweitzer in 2011, 'ex- plored how anxiety influences negotiations First we surveyed 185 professionals about the emotions they expected to feel before negotiating with a stranger, negotiating tobuy aca, and negotiating to increase their salary. When dealing with stranger or asking fora higher salary, anxiety was the dominant emo: tional expectation; when negotiating for the ca, anxiety was second only toexcitement. Tounderstand how anxiety can affect negotia- tors, we then asked a separate group of 136 partic: pantstonegotistea cellphonecontractthat required agreeing ona purchase price, warranty period, and thelength ofthe contact. Weinducedanxiety in half ‘teparicipantsby having them listen to continuous three-minute clips ofthe menacing theme music fiom the film Psycho, while the other hal listened to pleasant musicby Handel, (Researchers call this “incidental” emotional manipulation, and its quite powerful Listening to the Psycho musicis genuinely ‘uncomfortable: Feople's palms gt sweaty, andsome listeners becomejumpy.) In this experiment and three others, we found that anxiety had a significant effect on how people negotiated. People experiencing anxiety made ‘weaker first offers, responded more quickly to each ‘move the counterpart made, and were more likely to exit negotiations early (even though thei instruc- tons clearly warned that exiting early would re- duce the value they received from the negotiation). Anxious negotiators made deals that were 12% loss ‘nancialy attractive than those made by negotia- torsin the neutral group. We did discover one caveat, however: People who gave themselves high ratings Inasurvey onnegotiatingaptitude were less affected byanaxiety than others. ‘Those experiments examined what happens ‘when people feel anxious. But what happens when they express that anxiety, making it clear to thelr counterparts that they're nervous (and perhaps vul- erable)? In 2012, with Francesca Gino and Maurice ‘Schweitzer, I conducted eight experiments to ex- plore how anxious people behaved in situations in ‘hich they could seekadvice from others. We found ‘that relativeto people who did not feelanxious, they were less confident, more likely to consult others when making decisions, and less able to discrimi- nate between good and bad advice. n the most rel- ‘evant of these experiments, we found that anxious patticipants did not discount advice ftom someone ‘with a stated conflict of interest, whereas subjects feeling neutral emotions looked upon that advice skeptically. Although this research didn't directly ad- dress how the subjects would negotiate, it suggests that people who express anxiety are more likely to be taken advantage of'n a negotiation, especially if the other party senses their distress. Excellent negotiators often make their counter- parts feel anxious on purpose. For example, on the ‘TV show Shark Tank, six wealthy investors (sharks) December 2015 | Harvard dusiness Review South Asia 49[SPOTLIGHT ON THE SOFTER SIDE OF NEGOTIATION negotiate with entrepreneurs hoping for funding, ‘The entrepreneurs must pitch their ideas in front of huge television audience and face questions from the investors that are often aggressive and unnerv- ing. Asthisisgoingon, stress-inducing musicfillsthe ‘TV studio. This setup does more than create drama and entertainment for viewers; it also intentionally ‘puts pressure on the entrepreneurs. The sharks are professional negotiators who want to knock the en- trepreneursoffbalancesso thatit willbe easier to take ‘ownership of their good ideas at the lowest price possible. (When multiplesharks wantto invest, they ‘often drop comments that are intended to make op- posinginvestorsanxioustoo.)Ifyou watch the show ‘losely, you'll probably notice a pattern: The entre- preneurs who seem least rattled by the environmen- tal stressors tend to negotiate the most carefully and