Works
- First Offers as Anchors: The Role of Perspective-Taking and Negotiator Focus, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2001
In Tactics of Organizational Politics
Ideas
First offers as anchors. In three experiments, whichever party made the first offer, buyer or seller, obtained the better outcome, and first offers strongly predicted final prices. The advantage disappeared when the other negotiator focused on information inconsistent with the first offer: the opponent's alternatives, the opponent's reservation price, or his or her own target.
What it explains
Mussweiler and Galinsky explain why the first number on the table tends to shape the outcome, and how the other side can resist it by focusing on its own target and alternatives. A well-prepared party with a defensible figure gains by putting it forward first.