CHAPTER 5 : Perception, Cognition, and Emotion

Perception

Perception Defined

          Perception is the process by which individuals connect to their environment.

Perception is a “sense-making” process

This selective perception occurs through a number of perceptual “shortcuts” that allow uw to process information more readily. Unfortunately, the perceptual efficeiencies that result may come at the expense of accuracy.

Cognitive Biases in Negotiation

          So far they have examined how information is perceived, filtered, distorted, and framed. In this section, we examine how negotiators use information to make decisions during the negotiation. Rather than being perfect processors of information, it is quite clear that negotiators (like all decision makers) have a tendency to make systematic errors when they process information. These errors, collectively labeled cognitive biases, tend to impede negotiator performance: they include:

1.      The irrational escalation of commitment

2.      The mythical belief that the issues under negotiation are all fixed-pie

3.      The process of anchoring and adjustment in decision making

4.      Issue and problem framing

5.      The availability of information

6.      The winner’s curse

7.      Negotiator overconfidence

8.      The law of small numbers

9.      Self-serving biases

10.  The endowment effect

11.  The tendency to ignore others’ cognitions

12.  The process of reactive devaluation

Mood, Emotion, and Negotiation

            The role of mood and emotion in negotiation has been the subject of an increasing body of recent theory and research during the last decade. The distinction between mood and emotion is based on three characteristics: specificity, intensity, and duration. Mood states are more diffuse, less intense, and more enduring than emotion states, which tend to be more intense and directed at more specific targets. Emotions play important roles at various stages of negotiation interaction. There are many new and exciting developments in the study of mood, emotion, and negotiation, and we can present only a limited overview here. The following are some selected findings. 

In this chapther they have taken a multifaceted look at the role of perception, cognition, and emotion in negotiation. The first portion of the chapter presented a brief overview of the perceptual process and discussed four types of perceptual distortions: stereotyping, halo effects, selective perception, and projection. We then turned to a discussion of how framing influences perceptions in negotiation and how reframing and issue development both change negotiator perceptions during negotiations.

The chapter then discussed one of the most important recent areas of inquiry in negotiation, that of cognitive biases in negotiation. This was followed by consideration of ways to manage misperception and cognitive biases in negotiation. In a final section we considered mood and emotion in negotiation, which provides an important alternative to cognitive and perceptual processes for understanding negotiation behavior.