Why It Pays to Get Inside the Head of Your Opponent

Abstract

The current research explored whether two related yet distinct social competencies -- perspective taking (the cognitive capacity to consider the world from another individual's viewpoint) and empathy (the ability to connect emotionally with another individual) -- have differential effects in negotiations. Across three studies, using both individual difference measures and experimental manipulations, we found that perspective taking increased individuals' ability to discover hidden agreements and to both create and claim resources at the bargaining table. However, empathy did not prove nearly as advantageous and at times was detrimental to discovering a possible deal and achieving individual profit. These results held regardless of whether the interaction was a negotiation in which a prima facie solution was not possible or a multiple-issue negotiation that required discovering mutually beneficial trade-offs. Although empathy is an essential tool in many aspects of social life, perspective taking appears to be a particularly critical ability in negotiations.

Perspective taking as a means to overcome motivational barriers in negotiations: When putting oneself into the opponent's shoes helps to walk toward agreements.

“…Corroborating these assumptions, experimental studies show that perspective taking can be a powerful tool to overcome cognitive barriers in negotiations, such as anchor effects (Galinsky & Mussweiler, 2001), the self-serving fairness bias (Drolet, Larrick, & Morris, 1998), or the fixed-pie perception (Galinsky, Maddux, Gilin, & White, 2008;Moran & Ritov, 2007;Thompson, 1995). Furthermore, as suggested by a study of Bazerman and Neale (1983), perspective-takers achieve higher individual outcomes than do negotiators who tend to focus on their own perspective.…”

“…On the basis of previous research (Galinsky et al, 2008;Kemp & Smith, 1994;Thompson, 1995), it can be assumed that perspective taking allowed negotiators to explore differences in their underlying interests and preferences toward the issues. If a perspective-taking mindset helps negotiators to detect these differences, egoistic parties may achieve high individual outcomes without doing so at the complete expense of their egoistic counterparts.…”

“…Future research may focus on different types of perspective taking, such as negotiators' tendencies to focus on the counterpart's preferences and underlying interests, the counterpart's value orientation (e.g., the counterpart's prosocial, egoistic, or competitive motivation; Epley et al, 2006), or on the counterpart's thoughts (Galinsky & Ku, 2004;Galinsky & Moskowitz, 2000) and feelings (Batson et al, 1997;Dovidio et al, 2004). As suggested by recent research (Galinsky et al, 2008), focusing on different psychological states of the counterpart brings about different effects with respect to individual and joint outcomes in negotiations with interlinked issues. In this respect, it may be particularly interesting to explore the effects of different types of perspective taking on the emergence and alleviation of partial impasses.…”

“…Furthermore, as suggested by a study of Bazerman and Neale (1983), perspective-takers achieve higher individual outcomes than do negotiators who tend to focus on their own perspective. In a recent study, Galinsky et al (2008) demonstrated that perspective taking as a trait variable (Study 1) or as an induced mindset (Study 2) helped negotiators to solve a seemingly intractable conflict via the integrative strategy of "expanding the pie" (i.e., create win-win solutions by means of adding resources to the negotiation; Pruitt & Carnevale, 1993). A third experiment demonstrated that negotiators who took their counterpart's perspective both increased their individual outcomes (cf.…”

Perspective taking combats automatic expressions of racial bias.

“…Social theorists have long argued that a well-developed perspective-taking capacity is critical for managing the complexities of social life (Higgins, 1981;Mead, 1934;Piaget, 1932;Smith, 1759Smith, /1976, with some viewing it as a critical antecedent to altruistic behavior (Batson, 1991) and to the development of moral reasoning more generally (Selman, 1980). Its presence can promote cooperation (Batson & Moran, 1999) and facilitate conflict resolution (Galinsky, Maddux, Gilin, & White, 2008). Perspectivetaking deficiencies, in contrast, have been linked to severe social dysfunction (as in the case of autism; Baron-Cohen, 1995) and to arrogant, inconsiderate, and even aggressive styles of interpersonal responding (Richardson, Hammock, Smith, Gardner, & Signo, 1994)-behaviors certain to add fuel to already fiery conflict situations.…”