Emotions in e-Negotiations

Abstract

Emotions influence the course of a negotiation in at least two ways: First, emotions and cognition are strongly interrelated, thereby affecting negotiators’ decision making (intra-personal). Second, negotiators’ conveyed emotions fulfill important social functions during the negotiation interaction (inter-personal). In this chapter, we argue that negotiating electronically and employing a decision support system affect both the social functions of emotions in negotiations and the interplay between emotion and cognition—sometimes beneficially and sometimes detrimentally. We propose a model integrating theories and empirical results of intra- and inter-personal effects of emotions in negotiations with literature on electronic communication and decision support. The chapter concludes by exemplifying the interrelation between cognitive and social effects of emotions in negotiations, describes how this relationship is mediated by negotiating electronically, and discusses potential avenues for future research.