Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them

by Joshua D. Greene

So who did better, the selfish careerists or the seekers of justice? The surprising answer is that the selfish careerists did better. Bear in mind that the selfish careerists did not succeed by trampling over the seekers of justice. The selfish careerists were negotiating with each other. What Harinck and colleagues found was that two people told to negotiate selfishly were, on average, better at finding win-win solutions than two people told to seek justice. Why is this? Once again, in this set of negotiations, the key to mutual success is for both negotiators to make concessions on the issues that are less important to them, in order make greater gains on the issues that are more important to them. As a selfish negotiator, you’re willing to make these concessions because they result in a net gain.

While compromising (eg in a partnership), make concessions with issues that are not so important to you, so that you can make gains with more important issues.