Sychological Influence in Negotiation: an Introduction Long Overdue

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Psychological Influence in Negotiation: An Introduction Long Overdue

Deepak Malhotra Max Bazerman

Copyright © 2008 by Deepak Malhotra and Max Bazerman. Working papers are in draft form. This working paper is distributed for purposes of comment and discussion only. It may not be reproduced without permission of the copyright holder. Copies of working papers are available from the author.

Psychological Influence in Negotiation: An Introduction Long Overdue

Deepak Malhotra Harvard Business School Baker Library, Room 471 Boston, MA 02163 Phone: 617-496-1020 Fax: 617-496-4191 Email: dmalhotra@hbs.edu

Max Bazerman Harvard Business School Baker Library, Room 453 Boston, MA 02163 Phone: 617-495-6429 Email: mbazerman@hbs.edu

Revised and Resubmitted to Journal of Management January 8, 2008

Psychological Influence in Negotiation: An Introduction Long Overdue

Abstract This paper discusses the causes and consequences of the (surprisingly) limited extent to which social influence research has penetrated the field of negotiation, and then presents a framework for bridging the gap between these two literatures. The paper notes that one of the reasons for its limited impact on negotiation research is that extant research on social influence focuses almost exclusively on economic or structural levers of influence. With this in mind, the paper seeks to achieve five objectives: (1) Define the domain of psychological influence as consisting of those tactics which do not require the influencer to change the economic or structural aspects of the bargaining situation in order to persuade the target; (2) Review prior research on behavioral decision making to identify ideas that may be relevant to the domain of psychological influence; (3) Provide a series of examples of how behavioral decision research can be leveraged to create psychological influence tactics for use in negotiation; (4) Consider the other side of influence, i.e., how targets of influence...