ABSTRACT
Negotiation is a means of resolving social and economic conflict, which sometimes evokes negative emotions. Recent theoretical approaches acknowledge the consequences that emotions and mood can have on negotiations (Bazerman, Curhan, Moore, & Valley, 2000; Morris & Keltner, 2000; Shapiro, 2002; see also Chapter 8 in this volume). This review focuses on the role that anger plays in negotiations. Anger is important to regulate because it can lead to an escalation of conflict (Allred, Mallozzi, Matsui, & Raia, 1997). We first explore why anger regulation is important despite the sometimes positive effects of expressing anger during negotiation. Next we examine the effectiveness of different emotion regulation strategies such as reappraisal, rumination, and distraction and discuss how these can be applied to the negotiation context. We then present the results from two experiments using emotion regulation to explore what impact these anger regulation strategies have on self-reported emotion and on aggressive behavior in negotiations.
