POSITIONAL BARGAINING AND THE FIRST REALISTIC OFFER (COMMENT). The typical example of positional bargaining is haggling over the price of an object for sale. Another example would be the settlement amount in an automobile accident law suit. There is only one issue (unless somebody throws in another issue as here.) In this kind of bargaining, making the first realistic offer gives away information—perhaps the realistic offer is something the other party would never have hoped for. I’m glad that Nick drew my attention to the two types of negotiation.
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Even in such cases, Fisher found ways to use interest based bargaining. Settlements can be structured in different ways that make the offered amount more attractive or some symbolic gesture like an apology may soften an otherwise deadlocked impasse.
Even with a stated price in sitations where bargaining is the norm, offers may be tempered by some sort of sweetener thrown in. When you bargain on the price of a car, an extended warranty, the value of the trade in, the terms of a loan, who pays various fees, etc. can all change the dynamic. Similarly with buying a house. I remember the rather extraordinay things offered when bargaining in African craft markets. Sometimes I got a second carving that would make an additional gift that I needed and was glad to take, The seller, in turn, really wanted to get x amount of cash that day and didn’t care how many things he had to give up to reach that goal. Fisher’s point is that positional bargaining is not predestined, but a choice protagonists make. The public expects it because that’s what they’ve learned happens in negotiations. Read “Getting to Yes.” It’s the short and sweet version of a far wider discourse. My students in a course on international negotiations found it fascinating and not a perspective they had expected to encounter.