Power and emotion in negotiation: power moderates the interpersonal effects of anger and happiness on concession making

Abstract

Abstract This paper focuses on the interactive effects of power and emotion in negotiation. Previous research has shown that negotiators concede more to angry opponents than to happy ones, and that power influences the amount of attention that is devoted to the social environment. Integrating these two lines of inquiry, we predicted that low‐power negotiators would be influenced by their opponent's emotions (conceding more to an angry opponent than to a happy one), whereas high‐power negotiators would not. Five studies using different methods (an experiment, a field simulation, and three scenario studies), different samples (students, general population, managers), and different operationalisations of power (BATNA, number of alternatives, legitimacy, support) support this hypothesis. The results are discussed in terms of a motivated information processing model of the interpersonal effects of emotions in negotiations. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.