The Influence of Bargaining Structure and Positive Affect on Decision-Making in Negotiation

While prior research showed that positive affect helped negotiators use more cooperative strategies and reach more integrative outcomes, this study found that there exists a boundary condition according to the bargaining structure of the negotiation (i.e. positive and negative bargaining zone). Results showed that negotiators in the positive affect condition were more likely to reach integrative solutions than the affect control condition only when they faced a negative bargaining zone. They also accurately guessed the important issues of the counterpart in the negative bargaining zone. In general, they arrived at an agreement significantly faster and perceived the counterpart more cooperative than the control condition. Negotiators with the positive affect were able to distinguish when the efforts to reach an integrative outcome is necessary, thus balance the benefit and the cost of the negotiation