Blog Archives
‘It’s Not About the Money. It’s About Sending a Message!’: Unpacking the Components of Revenge
May 19, 2021
What drives victims toward revenge? The most prevalent theories of why people punish others focus exclusively on the desire to discourage bad behavior in the future (deterrence), the desire to equate material outcomes (distributive justice), or the desire to cause comparative suffering to the offender. However, these motivations cannot explain why many acts of revenge seem narrowly designed to change the perpetrator’s beliefs above and beyond what can be attributed to the desire to cause suffering,...
May 19, 2021
What drives victims toward revenge? The most prevalent theories of why people punish others focus exclusively on the desire to discourage bad behavior in the future (deterrence), the desire to equate material outcomes (distributive justice), or the desire to cause comparative suffering to the offender. However, these motivations cannot explain why many acts of revenge seem narrowly designed to change the perpetrator’s beliefs above and beyond what can be attributed to the desire to cause suffering,...
One Step Ahead: Mastering the Art and Science of Negotiation
May 18, 2021
Many books on negotiation aimed at a popular audience, even those clearly aimed at an audience that wants to be sophisticated, tend to combine a repackaged variant of Getting To Yes with a negotiation‐related repackaging of Kahneman and Tversky’s seminal works on cognitive psychology. Those that do not repackage GTY often seek to discredit GTY’s precepts (or Harvard’s negotiation teaching) by offering simplistic misinterpretations of the GTY maxims and then,...
May 18, 2021
Many books on negotiation aimed at a popular audience, even those clearly aimed at an audience that wants to be sophisticated, tend to combine a repackaged variant of Getting To Yes with a negotiation‐related repackaging of Kahneman and Tversky’s seminal works on cognitive psychology. Those that do not repackage GTY often seek to discredit GTY’s precepts (or Harvard’s negotiation teaching) by offering simplistic misinterpretations of the GTY maxims and then,...
Noise: How to Overcome the High, Hidden Cost of Inconsistent Decision Making
May 17, 2021
Professionals in many organizations are assigned arbitrarily to cases: appraisers in credit-rating agencies, physicians in emergency rooms, underwriters of loans and insurance, and others. Organizations expect consistency from these professionals: Identical cases should be treated similarly, if not identically. The problem is that humans are unreliable decision makers; their judgments are strongly influenced by irrelevant factors, such as their current mood, the time since their last meal, and the weather....
May 17, 2021
Professionals in many organizations are assigned arbitrarily to cases: appraisers in credit-rating agencies, physicians in emergency rooms, underwriters of loans and insurance, and others. Organizations expect consistency from these professionals: Identical cases should be treated similarly, if not identically. The problem is that humans are unreliable decision makers; their judgments are strongly influenced by irrelevant factors, such as their current mood, the time since their last meal, and the weather....
Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment
May 16, 2021
Imagine that two doctors in the same city give different diagnoses to identical patients—or that two judges in the same courthouse give markedly different sentences to people who have committed the same crime. Suppose that different interviewers at the same firm make different decisions about indistinguishable job applicants—or that when a company is handling customer complaints, the resolution depends on who happens to answer the phone. Now imagine that the same doctor, the same judge,...
May 16, 2021
Imagine that two doctors in the same city give different diagnoses to identical patients—or that two judges in the same courthouse give markedly different sentences to people who have committed the same crime. Suppose that different interviewers at the same firm make different decisions about indistinguishable job applicants—or that when a company is handling customer complaints, the resolution depends on who happens to answer the phone. Now imagine that the same doctor, the same judge,...
Video Of Law Students Thanking Professor In Last Zoom Class Of The Year Goes Viral
May 14, 2021
To say that the 2020/21 academic year was a tough one for students and faculty feels like an understatement. Many classes were moved online. Zoom fatigue set in. The in-person opportunities to socialize and take the edge of the stress of law school were vastly diminished. So it’s nice to see that through all those challenges, standout law professors still found a way to connect with their students in a meaningful way. I was reminded of that when I saw this local news story about students in Loyola...
May 14, 2021
To say that the 2020/21 academic year was a tough one for students and faculty feels like an understatement. Many classes were moved online. Zoom fatigue set in. The in-person opportunities to socialize and take the edge of the stress of law school were vastly diminished. So it’s nice to see that through all those challenges, standout law professors still found a way to connect with their students in a meaningful way. I was reminded of that when I saw this local news story about students in Loyola...
The Role of Issues in Negotiation: Framing, Linking, and Ordering
May 13, 2021
Three aspects of negotiation issues are framing (types of issues), linking (relationships among the issues), and ordering (procedures for discussing them). In this essay, we review the relevant experimental and case study literatures on each of these aspects and consider interactions among them. Framing includes distinctions among abstract and concrete issues, values and interests, and broad formulas and the details needed to implement them. Linking can be either substantive or tactical, involves...
May 13, 2021
Three aspects of negotiation issues are framing (types of issues), linking (relationships among the issues), and ordering (procedures for discussing them). In this essay, we review the relevant experimental and case study literatures on each of these aspects and consider interactions among them. Framing includes distinctions among abstract and concrete issues, values and interests, and broad formulas and the details needed to implement them. Linking can be either substantive or tactical, involves...
It‘s Tough To Negotiate by Email!
May 12, 2021
A recent study confirms what my gut has told me: that negotiating by e mail definitely has its challenges. In an April 5, 2021 blog post entitled “The Pitfalls of Negotiations Over Email” by the PON Staff, the writer concludes that negotiating by e mail has many more disadvantages than advantages. In a study by Justin Kruger of New York University, Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago and Justin Parker and Zhi-Wen Ng of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, these researchers...
May 12, 2021
A recent study confirms what my gut has told me: that negotiating by e mail definitely has its challenges. In an April 5, 2021 blog post entitled “The Pitfalls of Negotiations Over Email” by the PON Staff, the writer concludes that negotiating by e mail has many more disadvantages than advantages. In a study by Justin Kruger of New York University, Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago and Justin Parker and Zhi-Wen Ng of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, these researchers...
‘I Sometimes Catch Myself Looking Angry or Tired …’: The Impact of Mediating by Zoom
May 11, 2021
At the outset of the COVID pandemic, many mediators and lawyers were dubious at best about mediating over the internet using platforms such as Zoom. Working through virtual windows with emotional people to solve difficult conflicts seemed impractical, they thought, making it at best only a temporary substitute for the in-person process. The author interviewed twenty professional legal mediators who had conducted in total more than 1,100 Zoom mediations, to learn about their actual experiences with...
May 11, 2021
At the outset of the COVID pandemic, many mediators and lawyers were dubious at best about mediating over the internet using platforms such as Zoom. Working through virtual windows with emotional people to solve difficult conflicts seemed impractical, they thought, making it at best only a temporary substitute for the in-person process. The author interviewed twenty professional legal mediators who had conducted in total more than 1,100 Zoom mediations, to learn about their actual experiences with...
Paul M. Lurie on Guided Mediation
May 10, 2021
Paul M. Lurie, now a retired partner at Schiff Hardin LLP, in 2013 created the Guided Choice Interest Group and its website. It established what is now known as the Guided Mediation, which was originally called Guided Choice Mediation. Here’s his description of the current process. Guided Mediation is a collection of best practices and tools in actual use that increase mediation efficiency, get earlier settlements, reduce legal and consultants’ fees, and minimize business...
May 10, 2021
Paul M. Lurie, now a retired partner at Schiff Hardin LLP, in 2013 created the Guided Choice Interest Group and its website. It established what is now known as the Guided Mediation, which was originally called Guided Choice Mediation. Here’s his description of the current process. Guided Mediation is a collection of best practices and tools in actual use that increase mediation efficiency, get earlier settlements, reduce legal and consultants’ fees, and minimize business...
Hybrid Work Stats: 60% In Person @ Google
May 9, 2021
In fact, in places where we’ve been able to reopen Google offices in a voluntary capacity, we’ve seen nearly 60% of Googlers choosing to come back to the office. Taken together these changes will result in a workforce where around 60% of Googlers are coming together in the office a few days a week, another 20% are working in new office locations, and 20% are working from home. I am profoundly optimistic that once we do, we will be able to come back together in our offices to see all the people...
May 9, 2021
In fact, in places where we’ve been able to reopen Google offices in a voluntary capacity, we’ve seen nearly 60% of Googlers choosing to come back to the office. Taken together these changes will result in a workforce where around 60% of Googlers are coming together in the office a few days a week, another 20% are working in new office locations, and 20% are working from home. I am profoundly optimistic that once we do, we will be able to come back together in our offices to see all the people...
