The Simplest Way to Negotiate
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Robert Axelrod in his book, The Evolution of Cooperation (Basic Books, Inc., New York, 1984) (Axelrod(81)_the_evolution_of_cooperation ) explains this notion by using the famous example of the “Prisoner’s Dilemma”:
In the Prisoner’s Dilemma game, there are two players. Each has two choices, namely to cooperate or defect. Each must make the choice without knowing what the other will do. No matter what the other does, defection yields a higher payoff than cooperation. The dilemma is that if both defect, both do worse than if both had cooperated. (Id. at 8.)
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In employing this strategy, Axelrod provides four rules:
(1) Do not be Envious. Do not strive to be more successful than the other party. Do not compare your success to that of the other party and then proceed to improve your position out of envy;
(2) Be Nice or Optimistic. That is, do not be the first to defect. Cooperate with the other player as long as she does.
(3) Reciprocate. If the other person defects, then retaliate and defect. Do not always cooperate as this will probably lead to your own exploitation by the other player.
(4) Be Forgiving. Once the other player stops playing “nice”, your instinct may be to continue to be “nasty” even after the other player returns to playing ”nice”. Don’t! Rather, be forgiving and return to playing “nice”, as well. (Axelrod, supra, at 110-114, 118-122 and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner’s_dilemma)
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Very succinctly, this strategy will be successful,
… due to being nice, provocable, forgiving, and clear. Its niceness means that it is never the first to defect, and this property prevents it from getting into unnecessary trouble. Its retaliation discourages the other side from persisting whenever defection is tried. Its forgiveness helps restore mutual cooperation. And its clarity makes it behavioral pattern easy to recognize; and once recognized, it is easy to perceive that the best way of dealing with TIT FOR TAT is to cooperate with it.” (Axelrod, supra, at 176.)
The next time you negotiate, try a game of Tit for Tat. Not only may you like it, it just may help you obtain the best result. ….Just something to think about.
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