Methodological Challenges in the Study of Negotiator Affect

This article examines methodological issues that accompany expanding research attention to affect and emotion in bargaining and negotiation. The role of affect in negotiation is presumed to have anterior, experiential, and strategic components. After reviewing existing empirical research on emotion as predictor, consequence, and tactic in negotiation, we consider complications that challenge the researcher's ability to isolate the impact of specific affect states on particular components of the negotiation dynamic. That analysis leads to a survey and discussion of potential methodological remedies that will increase the ability of researchers to capture the "real" emotions that individuals experience, express, mask, and strategically deploy within the negotiation encounter.