Overcoming judgmental biases in negotiations: A scenario-based survey analysis on third party direct intervention

In many business negotiations, negotiators fail to identify and consequently exploit the integrative potential that underlies their interests and positions, due to cognitive biases preventing clear information processing. Such biases can be overcome through the intervention of external parties. This study explores perceptions of a new form of external intervention on negotiations to overcome cognitive biases and reach integrative agreements: third party direct intervention. This study contributes first to the understanding of challenges and solutions to reaching integrative agreements; second, to increasing knowledge about individual differences in negotiation; third, to developing a novel methodological approach to study negotiations by creating and validating a case scenario using vignettes. Based on data collected from a sample of fifty-six experienced managers, findings show that this form of intervention increased the creation of value, fairness and the likelihood of reaching an agreement. Individual differences were found in terms of personality traits, gender, and education. © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.