Take a break! or not? The impact of mindsets during breaks on negotiation processes and outcomes

Abstract

In the current research, we investigate the effects of breaks-temporary recesses in which participants stop interacting and withdraw from the situation-on negotiation processes and outcomes. We conducted two laboratory experiments in which participants engaged in buyer-seller negotiations. Experiment 1 (N = 140) showed that dyads reached higher-quality agreements after a break in which they were cognitively busy with a distraction task than after a break in which they could reflect upon the negotiation. Experiment 2 (N = 76) showed that competitive thinking during a break lead to lower-quality agreements than cooperative thinking during the break. It seems that the negative effects of competitive thoughts during a break can be compensated by turning one's mind to other issues than the negotiation, or by actively engaging in cooperative thinking. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.