Like the first-mover in an ultimatum game, the principal is a first-mover with foreknowledge of the agent’s “rational” best response function. The solution to the “principal’s problem” is to choose a contract that maximizes the principal’s expected profit given the agent’s...

Complex negotiations occur within a broader stream of ongoing social exchange, but negotiation research focuses on narrowly circumscribed encounters. Building on Trivers’ model of reciprocal altruism and Thaler’s theory of mental accounting, we propose a model of a negotiator who opens and...

Walton and McKersie's Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiation sought to provide a descriptive theory of the process by which union and management negotiators reached settlements. Their paper drew on existing psychology, behavioral decision theory, and game theory. The basic psychological model of...

Strategic emotion can be used as a negotiation tactic to extract value from one's opponent. Previous research findings have found that the use of this tactic can influence not only the amount of value claimed, but post-negotiation behaviors. However, interacting with an opponent who possesses...

Important decisions are often determined by group vote. Institutional provisions may stipulate who has the authority to determine the group's agenda. According to cooperative game theory, this privilege gives the leader a great deal of power to control the outcome. In a series of experiments,...