In a negotiation situation, for instance, good mood helps. People in a good mood are more cooperative and elicit reciprocation. They tend to end up with better results than do unhappy negotiators. Of course, successful negotiations make people happy, too, but in these experiments, the mood is not caused by what is going on in the negotiation; it is induced before people negotiate. Also, negotiators who shift from a good mood to an angry one during the negotiation often achieve good results—something to remember when you’re facing a stubborn counterpart!
