Perception, Cognition, and Emotion

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Perception, Cognition, and Emotion

• CHAPTER FIVE

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Perception, Cognition, and Emotion in Negotiation

• The basic building blocks of all social
  encounters are
• Perception
• Cognition
• Framing
• Cognitive biases
• Emotion

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Perception

• Perception is
• The process by which individuals connect to their
  environment.
• A sense-making process

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The Role of Perception
The process of ascribing meaning to messages and
events is strongly influenced by the perceivers
current state of mind, role, and comprehension of
earlier communications People interpret their
environment in order to respond appropriately
The complexity of environments makes it
impossible to process all of the
information People develop shortcuts to process
information and these shortcuts create perceptual
errors
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Perceptual Distortion

• Four major perceptual errors
• Stereotyping
• Halo effects
• Selective perception
• Projection

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Stereotyping and Halo Effects

• Stereotyping
• Is a very common distortion
• Occurs when an individual assigns attributes to
  another solely on the basis of the others
  membership in a particular social or demographic
  category
• Halo effects
• Are similar to stereotypes
• Occur when an individual generalizes about a
  variety of attributes based on the knowledge of
  one attribute of an individual

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Selective Perceptionand Projection

• Selective perception
• Perpetuates stereotypes or halo effects
• The perceiver singles out information that
  supports a prior belief but filters out contrary
  information
• Projection
• Arises out of a need to protect ones own
  self-concept
• People assign to others the characteristics or
  feelings that they possess themselves

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Framing

• Frames
• Represent the subjective mechanism through which
  people evaluate and make sense out of situations
• Lead people to pursue or avoid subsequent actions
• Focus, shape and organize the world around us
• Make sense of complex realities
• Define a person, event or process
• Impart meaning and significance

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Types of Frames

• Substantive
• Outcome
• Aspiration
• Process
• Identity
• Characterization
• Loss-Gain

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How Frames Work in Negotiation

• Negotiators can use more than one frame
• Mismatches in frames between parties are sources
  of conflict
• Particular types of frames may lead to particular
  types of arguments
• Specific frames may be likely to be used with
  certain types of issues
• Parties are likely to assume a particular frame
  because of various factors

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Interests, Rights, and Power

• Parties in conflict use one of three frames
• Interests people talk about their positions
  but often what is at stake is their underlying
  interests
• Rights people may be concerned about who is
  right that is, who has legitimacy, who is
  correct, and what is fair
• Power people may wish to resolve a conflict on
  the basis of who is stronger

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Approaches to Negotiation
Approach
Interests
Rights
Power
Goal

• Self-interest
• Dispute resolution
• Understanding others concerns

• Fairness
• Justice

• Winning
• Respect

Temporal focus

• Present (what needs and
• interests do we have right now?)

• Past (what has been dictated
• by the past?)

• Future (what steps can I
• take in the future to
• overpower others?)

Distributive strategies (pie slicing)

• Compromise

• Often produces a winner and a loser thus,
  unequal
• distribution

• Often produces a winner and a loser
  thus, unequal distribution

Integrative strategies (pie expansion)

• Most likely to expand the pie via addressing
  parties underlying needs

• Difficult to expand the pie
• unless focus is on interests

• Difficult to expand the pie unless focus is on
  interests

• Resentment
• Possible retaliation
• Revenge

• Possible court action

• Greater understanding
• Satisfaction
• Stability of agreement

Implications for future negotiations and
relationship
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The Frame of an Issue Changes as the Negotiation
Evolves

• Negotiators tend to argue for stock issues or
  concerns that are raised every time the parties
  negotiate
• Each party attempts to make the best possible
  case for his or her preferred position or
  perspective
• Frames may define major shifts and transitions in
  a complex overall negotiation
• Multiple agenda items operate to shape issue
  development

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Some Advice about Problem Framing for Negotiators

• Frames shape what the parties define as the key
  issues and how they talk about them
• Both parties have frames
• Frames are controllable, at least to some degree
• Conversations change and transform frames in ways
  negotiators may not be able to predict but may be
  able to control
• Certain frames are more likely than others to
  lead to certain types of processes and outcomes

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Cognitive Biases in Negotiation

• Negotiators have a tendency to make systematic
  errors when they process information. These
  errors, collectively labeled cognitive biases,
  tend to impede negotiator performance.

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Cognitive Biases

• Irrational escalation of commitment
• Mythical fixed-pie beliefs
• Anchoring and adjustment
• Issue framing and risk
• Availability of information

• The winners curse
• Overconfidence
• The law of small numbers
• Self-serving biases
• Endowment effect
• Ignoring others cognitions
• Reactive devaluation

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Irrational Escalation of Commitment and Mythical
Fixed-Pie Beliefs

• Irrational escalation of commitment
• Negotiators maintain commitment to a course of
  action even when that commitment constitutes
  irrational behavior
• Mythical fixed-pie beliefs
• Negotiators assume that all negotiations (not
  just some) involve a fixed pie

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Anchoring and Adjustment and Issue Framing and
Risk

• Anchoring and adjustment
• The effect of the standard (anchor) against which
  subsequent adjustments (gains or losses) are
  measured
• The anchor might be based on faulty or incomplete
  information, thus be misleading
• Issue framing and risk
• Frames can lead people to seek, avoid, or be
  neutral about risk in decision making and
  negotiation

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Availability of Informationand the Winners Curse

• Availability of information
• Operates when information that is presented in
  vivid or attention-getting ways becomes easy to
  recall.
• Becomes central and critical in evaluating events
  and options
• The winners curse
• The tendency to settle quickly on an item and
  then subsequently feel discomfort about a win
  that comes too easily

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Overconfidence and The Law of Small Numbers

• Overconfidence
• The tendency of negotiators to believe that their
  ability to be correct or accurate is greater than
  is actually true
• The law of small numbers
• The tendency of people to draw conclusions from
  small sample sizes
• The smaller sample, the greater the possibility
  that past lessons will be erroneously used to
  infer what will happen in the future

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Confidence or Overconfidence?

• We came to Iceland to advance the cause of
  peace. . .and though we put on the table the most
  far-reaching arms control proposal in history,
  the General Secretary rejected it.
• President Ronald Reagan to reporters,
• following completion of presummit arms control
  discussions
• in Reykjavik, Iceland, on October 12, 1986.
• I proposed an urgent meeting here because we
  had something to propose. . .The Americans came
  to this meeting empty handed.
• Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev,
• Describing the same meeting to reporters.

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Self-Serving Biasesand Endowment Effect

• Self-serving biases
• People often explain another persons behavior by
  making attributions, either to the person or to
  the situation
• Endowment effect
• The tendency to overvalue something you own or
  believe you possess

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Ignoring Others Cognitionsand Reactive
Devaluation

• Ignoring others cognitions
• Negotiators dont bother to ask about the other
  partys perceptions and thoughts
• This leaves them to work with incomplete
  information, and thus produces faulty results
• Reactive devaluation
• The process of devaluing the other partys
  concessions simply because the other party made
  them

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Managing Misperceptions and Cognitive Biases in
Negotiation

• The best advice that negotiators can follow is
• Be aware of the negative aspects of these biases
• Discuss them in a structured manner within the
  team and with counterparts

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Mood, Emotion, and Negotiation

• The distinction between mood and emotion is based
  on three characteristics
• Specificity
• Intensity
• Duration

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Mood, Emotion, and Negotiation

• Negotiations create both positive and negative
  emotions
• Positive emotions generally have positive
  consequences for negotiations
• They are more likely to lead the parties toward
  more integrative processes
• They also create a positive attitude toward the
  other side
• They promote persistence

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Mood, Emotion, and Negotiation

• Aspects of the negotiation process can lead to
  positive emotions
• Positive feelings result from fair procedures
  during negotiation
• Positive feelings result from favorable social
  comparison

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Mood, Emotion, and Negotiation

• Negative emotions generally have negative
  consequences for negotiations
• They may lead parties to define the situation as
  competitive or distributive
• They may undermine a negotiators ability to
  analyze the situation accurately, which adversely
  affects individual outcomes
• They may lead parties to escalate the conflict
• They may lead parties to retaliate and may thwart
  integrative outcomes

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Mood, Emotion, and Negotiation

• Aspects of the negotiation process can lead to
  negative emotions
• Negative emotions may result from a competitive
  mindset
• Negative emotions may result from an impasse
• Effects of positive and negative emotion
• Positive emotions may generate negative outcomes
• Negative feelings may elicit beneficial outcomes
• Emotions can be used strategically as negotiation
  gambits