Negotiating with a growling stomach can backfire - eat before the negotiation.
As you prepare for your next negotiation, think not only about what you will bring to the negotiation table, but also how much you will eat beforehand. Does that sound strange? Probably. But researchers from Cornell University (E. Zitek) and Dartmouth College (A.Jordan) found in two experiments that hungry subjects were more likely to feel they were entitled to more than those who were full.
The researchers defined "entitlement" as the attitude that one deserves more positive outcomes than others. In the first experiment, the subjects had to present their views, e.g. E.g.: "I believe that I should be given more than others" and "People like me deserve a break more than others from time to time". In the second experiment, some subjects were taken to a room that smelled like pizza (since there was a pizza in the oven), while the remaining subjects were taken to an odorless room. Those ushered into the pizza-scented room felt hungrier than the comparison group, but also reported in a subsequent personality test that they felt they deserved more.
Feeling worthy of more has a number of consequences, most of which are negative. The people involved tend to negotiate more selfishly and have difficulty taking the other person's perspective. They are also more dishonest than others and have a harder time getting along with those around them. When people are hungry, they tend to focus on their own immediate needs. As a result, they may have trouble focusing on the needs of others as well. A condition that, according to Zitek and Jordan, leads to a feeling of entitlement.
For negotiation situations, this means that no matter how "hungry" you are to close a good deal, physical hunger will tempt you to behave in more unethical and selfish ways. While a hungry negotiator will be more inclined to claim short-term value, a growling stomach will mean new and creative ways of working are overlooked. Short-term gains from hunger pangs can also cause lasting damage to the negotiator's reputation as they are seen as complacent, dishonest and uncooperative.
ISMAN & Partner is a management consultancy that supports national and international corporations, medium-sized companies and start-ups, organizations and institutions in complex negotiation and conflict resolution processes. Founded in 2015 by Calin-Mihai Isman, the experts for negotiation & mediation support managers and employees from the areas of sales, purchasing, M&A, contracting, HR or IT.
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