1/16/2024 0 Comments Only provides a real alternative![]() ![]() In one study, 306 online participants were told to sell a second-hand CD to a potential online buyer (fictitious) and make the first offer. Across seven studies, using samples of over 2,500 MBA students, online participants, and working professionals, we hypothesized that imagining an attractive alternative offer would give them a reference point and motivate them to demand more from their opponents. ![]() We wondered whether negotiators needed actual alternatives to get these benefits, or whether simply imagining one would be sufficient. In earlier research we found that alternatives not only make negotiators feel more powerful, they can also serve as high or low reference points, helping to frame the negotiation. In our recent paper, forthcoming in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, we found that negotiators can actually reap some of the benefits that alternatives typically offer by simply imagining having an attractive alternative. So what can you do if you lack an alternative? How can you walk away from the table with a better outcome? For example, a recent survey by GMAC suggests that the average MBA graduate only has a single job offer to choose from, suggesting that many MBAs have to negotiate their job offer without an alternative to fall back on. But negotiators often have no alternative at all. Alternatives give negotiators the confidence to negotiate offers more ambitiously, to push for more optimal outcomes, and to walk away from the table when needed. Conventional wisdom suggests that negotiators need alternatives to succeed. ![]()
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