Getting (More of) What You Want

the parties’ desires and demands often change, even in the absence of new information. Situational characteristics such as the parties’ emotions, the powerful impact of past actions, and the idea of saving face predictably influence their behavior. In Margaret’s world, negotiators often make choices that thwart their best interests.

What possible benefit, he and many of our peers wondered, could come from abandoning the tenets of economic rationality—where reasonable, disciplined human beings made choices that maximized their utility—and try to incorporate the impulses that distract undisciplined individuals from doing what was best for them?

Systematically integrating psychological principles into economic calculations led to a superior outcome

negotiators are more likely to choose an outcome that is worse for them if that outcome is labeled “agreement” than if it is labeled “option A.”