Disconnecting outcomes and evaluations: the role of negotiator focus

Three experiments explored the role of negotiator focus in disconnecting negotiated outcomes and evaluations. Negotiators who focused on their target prices, the ideal outcome they could obtain, achieved objectively superior outcomes compared with negotiators who focused on their lower bound (e.g., reservation price). Those negotiators who focused on their targets, however, were less satisfied with their objectively superior outcomes. In the final experiment, when negotiators were reminded of their lower bound after the negotiation, the satisfaction of those negotiators who had focused on their target prices was increased, with outcomes and evaluations becoming connected rather than disconnected. The possible negative effects of setting high goals and the temporal dimensions of the disconnection and reconnection between outcomes and evaluations are discussed.     

The mind and heart (literally) of the negotiator: personality and contextual determinants of experiential reactions and economic outcomes in negotiation

The authors developed and tested a model proposing that negotiator personality interacts with the negotiation situation to influence negotiation processes and outcomes. In 2 studies, the authors found that negotiators high in agreeableness were best suited to integrative negotiations and that negotiators low in agreeableness were best suited to distributive negotiations. Consistent with this person-situation fit argument, in Study 1 the authors found that negotiators whose dispositions were a good fit to their negotiation context had higher levels of physiological (cardiac) arousal at the end of the negotiation compared with negotiators who were "misplaced" in situations inconsistent with their level of agreeableness, and this arousal was in turn related to increased economic outcomes. Study 2 replicated and extended the findings of Study 1, finding that person-situation fit was related to physiological (heart rate), psychological (positive affect), and behavioral activation (persistence) demonstrated during the negotiation, and these measures in turn were related to the economic outcomes achieved by participants.     

First offers as anchors: the role of perspective-taking and negotiator focus

Three experiments explored the role of first offers, perspective-taking, and negotiator self-focus in determining distributive outcomes in a negotiation. Across 3 experiments, whichever party, the buyer or seller, made the 1st offer obtained a better outcome. In addition, 1st offers were a strong predictor of final settlement prices. However, when the negotiator who did not make a 1st offer focused on information that was inconsistent with the implications of the opponent's 1st offer, the advantageous effect of making the 1st offer was eliminated: Thinking about one's opponent's alternatives to the negotiation (Experiment 1), one's opponent's reservation price (Experiment 2), or one's own target (Experiment 3) all negated the effect of 1st offers on outcomes. These effects occurred for both face-to-face negotiations and E-mail negotiations. Implications for negotiations and perspective-taking are discussed.     

My way: How strategic preferences vary by negotiator role and regulatory focus

Negotiators may use vigilant, loss-minimizing strategies or eager, gain-maximizing strategies. The present study provides evidence that preferences for these different strategies depend on negotiator role and personal orientation. In a price negotiation, buyers and prevention-focused individuals prefer vigilant strategies, whereas sellers and promotion-focused individuals prefer eager strategies. When there is a match between the strategy and the role (role–strategy fit) or between the strategy and the individual's regulatory focus orientation (focus–strategy fit), the negotiator experiences more fit and plans to be more demanding in the negotiation. By manipulating strategy in a real, binding negotiation, we reveal its importance in determining negotiators' subjective experiences and planned demand. Our results show that shared strategic preferences between different motivational orientations—negotiator role and personal regulatory focus—can create self-regulatory compatibility.     

Concave utility,transaction costs,and risk in measuring discounting of delayed rewards

Research has consistently found that the decline in the present values of delayed rewards as delay increases is better fit by hyperbolic than by exponential delay-discounting functions. However, concave utility, transaction costs, and risk each could produce hyperbolic-looking data, even when the underlying discounting function is exponential. In Experiments 1 (N = 45) and 2 (N = 103), participants placed bids indicating their present values of real future monetary rewards in computer-based 2nd-price auctions. Both experiments suggest that utility is not sufficiently concave to account for the superior fit of hyperbolic functions. Experiment 2 provided no evidence that the effects of transaction costs and risk are large enough to account for the superior fit of hyperbolic functions.     

Spatial reference frames and SNARC

In this work, the role that spatial reference frames play in determining the spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect is examined. Participants were instructed to generate an image of the numbers 1–9 oriented spatially in either a horizontal, vertical, or proximo-distal manner. Responses to a magnitude comparison task were then provided manually using keys located either to the left and right or at the bottom and top of a computer keyboard. For conditions in which the orientation of the generated image and the response locations were orthogonally misaligned, SNARC effects were not evident. It is argued that such results imply that alignment of the spatial reference frames associated with the responses and with the representation of numerical magnitude is a necessary condition for the elicitation of the SNARC effect.     

On feeling good and getting your way: mood effects on negotiator cognition and bargaining strategies.

Are happy people more likely to be cooperative and successful negotiators? On the basis of the Affect Infusion Model (AIM; Forgas, 1995a). Experiment 1 predicted and found that both good and bad moods had a significant mood-congruent effect on people's thoughts and plans, and on their negotiation strategies and outcomes in both interpersonal and intergroup bargaining. Experiment 2 replicated these results and also showed that mood effects were reduced for persons more likely to adopt motivated processing strategies (scoring high on machiavellianism and need for approval). Experiment 3 confirmed these effects and demonstrated that the mood of the opposition also produced more mood-congruent bargaining strategies and outcomes. The results are discussed in terms of affect priming influences on interpersonal behaviors, and the implications of these findings for real-life cognitive tasks and bargaining encounters are considered.     

Object localisation and frames of reference

In this paper, we explore which spatial frames of reference, egocentric or allocentric, are used to locate objects either in relation to ourselves (i.e. subject-to-object localisation) or to other objects (i.e. object-to-object localisation). In particular, we wanted to know whether the same or different frames of reference are used in these two different kinds of localisation after learning the environment in an egocentric way. Egocentric frames of reference are determined by the position of the person in relation to the spatial layout, whereas allocentric frames of reference are centred on the environment or on objects, independent of a persons position. We hypothesised that subject-to-object localisation is based on egocentric spatial representations, whereas object-to-object localisation is based on allocentric spatial representations. Participants were asked to study eight common objects, placed in a circle. Next, half of the participants had to point to an object in relation to their imagined position (egocentric condition) and the other half to an object in relation to another object (allocentric condition). The overall results show no difference between subject-to-object and object-to-object localisation. In both cases, access to positions corresponding to the front/back body axis was facilitated, in terms of both latency and error. Moreover, participants were able to retrieve objects positions better from the perspective from which they had learned the spatial array than from new perspectives. These results support the conclusion that egocentric coordinates, which are selected on the basis of our body-centred experience of the environment, define spatial representations underlying both subject-to-object and object-to-object localisation.     

Parietal cortex, navigation, and the construction of arbitrary reference frames for spatial information

The registration of spatial information by neurons of the parietal cortex takes on many forms. In most experiments, spatially modulated parietal activity patterns are found to take as their frame of reference some part of the body such as the retina. However, recent findings obtained in single neuron recordings from both rat and monkey parietal cortex suggest that the frame of reference utilized by parietal cortex may also be abstract or arbitrary in nature. Evidence in rats comes from work indicating that parietal activity in freely behaving rodents is organized according to the space defined by routes taken through an environment. In monkeys, evidence for an object-centered frame of reference has recently been presented. The present work reviews single neuron recording experiments in parietal cortex of freely behaving rats and considers the potential contribution of parietal cortex in solving navigational tasks. It is proposed that parietal cortex, in interaction with the hippocampus, plays a critical role in the selection of the most appropriate route between two points and, in addition, produces a route-based positional signal capable of guiding sensorimotor transitions.     

Duality between modal algebras and neighbourhood frames

This paper presents duality results between categories of neighbourhood frames for modal logic and categories of modal algebras (i.e. Boolean algebras with an additional unary operation). These results extend results of Goldblatt and Thomason about categories of relational frames for modal logic.     

Quality of life and affect in older persons: Hope, time frames, and training effects

This is a preliminary report of a project designed to increase hope and quality of life (QOL) in older persons through a series of five training sessions. The training sessions for the experimental groups are based on research on happiness, goal imagery, and time management. Data indicates that the training is effective in increasing expected QOL. Several measures of affect and stress are examined as a function of three time frames of self-reported QOL. Daily uplifts are significantly related to present and future QOL while measures of stress and major life changes are not. Correlations of affective measures with QOL tend to increase from time frames of the past five years through the present to the next five years, indicating the relevance of hope for older persons. Training for increased hope works with older persons. Data obtained in the process is used to address theoretical models of QOL in older persons. This project was supported by a grant from the American Association of Retired Persons Andrus Foundation.