Section III: You and Your Brain
You and Your Brain begins with a neuroscience-based explanation of how human beings evolved to be interdependent. The section moves on to a chapter on social intuition—a quality which helps you be aware of yourself, read your counterpart, and attune yourself to them. Next comes a chapter that picks apart two qualities, creativity and flexibility, which are often casually treated by negotiators as if they were the same thing. But in the structure of the brain, they aren’t. And this has consequences for how your brain actually works.
This is followed by a chapter on compassion, an essential element in negotiating with anyone whose troubles aren’t exactly like yours; in other words, just about everyone. Next is the late Morton Deutsch’s short treatment of classic research in the internal conflicts of the individual, supplemented by the distinguished author’s latter-day review of how such internal conflicts have sometimes created all-too-public disasters. Finally, the matter of whether mental illness may be affecting someone at the bargaining table is discussed, in a chapter which lays out the surprising frequency of mental illness in our society—and the varied ways in which we may need to respond to it, in a negotiation.
9. The Social Brain
Alexandra Crampton
The economists’ traditional and convenient concept of human beings as rational actors who pursue self-interest has by now been thoroughly amended, if not debunked. But how the complicating factors, including gender, culture, emotion, and cognitive distortions, actually work in our brains has been elusive until more recently. Lately, however, neuroscience has begun to make inroads toward a better understanding of many of these factors. This chapter describes one large piece of the puzzle: the evolution of human beings’ brains into those of a highly interdependent, social species.
10. Social Intuition
Andrea Kupfer Schneider and Noam Ebner
To be truly effective, negotiators must try to influence their counterparts not only through substantive offers, but also through engaging their attitudes and thinking patterns. This need has been analyzed (and, increasingly, taught) mostly in terms of empathy. Here, the authors suggest that empathy is separate from a broader construct, which they term social intuition. This skill, they contend, gives a negotiator the ability to have an impact on the entire negotiation interaction. Yet it requires attention not only to developing empathy, but also nonverbal communication abilities, as well as several other elements. In an effort to make a difficult skill more accessible, they suggest dividing its learning into three elements, structured quite differently from previous discussions: understanding first the self, then the other, and then the elements of “bridging” between these two.
11. Creativity and Flexibility in the Brain
Charlotte Jendresen
Contrary to what might be expected from common usage, people’s creativity and their flexibility rely on entirely different structures in the brain. Here, a brain researcher describes the recent findings of neuroscience in relation to both qualities. Jendresen shows how the experience of aging (sadly) robs everyone of some degree of mental flexibility. The good news is, the brain can be trained for both flexibility and creativity, and your brain will adapt, altering itself physically to respond to your needs.
12. Caring for People on the Edge: Emergency Medicine, Negotiation and the Science of Compassion
James O’Shea
The author, a physician specializing in emergency medicine, finds his work replete with negotiations of all kinds, many of them demanding compassion. Finding similarities to police hostage negotiation work, O’Shea reviews the neuroscience involved, and concludes that professionals of any kind who must demonstrate compassion at work can pay a price in their own peace of mind, or at an extreme, even in their ability to continue to do the job at all, when the demands exceed their time and ability to recharge their batteries of compassion. Most insidiously, the author finds hidden curricula in the training of his profession, and of others, which militate against the professional ever adopting a compassionate enough attitude to really suffer stress – or to do the job properly.
13. Internal Conflict and Its Consequences
Morton Deutsch
Have you ever been in a negotiation where you (or the other side) seem to be acting instinctively, but perhaps not helpfully? Have you wondered what was going on inside your counterpart? Deutsch summarizes how psychological theory applies to basic negotiation, and explains how negotiators’ internal conflicts affect them and everybody else in the room. In a coda about our global community, he adds an analysis of how powerful individuals’ internal conflicts have increasingly played out with disastrous consequences on the world stage.
14. Mental Health Challenges at the Table
Elizabeth Jeglic and Alexander Jeglic
It’s all but routine for a negotiator leaving a meeting to mutter under her breath concerning the perceived mental health issues of someone on the other side. Unfortunately, the research now demonstrates that such suspicions may not always be unreasonable. Mental health issues, it turns out, do not prevent people from assuming and holding high status in many kinds of organizations, so you may be negotiating with borderline mentally ill people with some regularity. Furthermore, we know that high-stress situations like the death of a family member, divorce or job changes, which often lead to negotiations, can trigger mental illness. Here, a psychologist and a lawyer (and sister and brother) analyze the most common types of mental illness, and tell you what to expect from each of the types you are most likely to encounter in negotiations. Crucially, they also provide recommendations as to how to deal with the reality of each type of mental illness.
This is followed by a chapter on compassion, an essential element in negotiating with anyone whose troubles aren’t exactly like yours; in other words, just about everyone. Next is the late Morton Deutsch’s short treatment of classic research in the internal conflicts of the individual, supplemented by the distinguished author’s latter-day review of how such internal conflicts have sometimes created all-too-public disasters. Finally, the matter of whether mental illness may be affecting someone at the bargaining table is discussed, in a chapter which lays out the surprising frequency of mental illness in our society—and the varied ways in which we may need to respond to it, in a negotiation.
9. The Social Brain
Alexandra Crampton
The economists’ traditional and convenient concept of human beings as rational actors who pursue self-interest has by now been thoroughly amended, if not debunked. But how the complicating factors, including gender, culture, emotion, and cognitive distortions, actually work in our brains has been elusive until more recently. Lately, however, neuroscience has begun to make inroads toward a better understanding of many of these factors. This chapter describes one large piece of the puzzle: the evolution of human beings’ brains into those of a highly interdependent, social species.
10. Social Intuition
Andrea Kupfer Schneider and Noam Ebner
To be truly effective, negotiators must try to influence their counterparts not only through substantive offers, but also through engaging their attitudes and thinking patterns. This need has been analyzed (and, increasingly, taught) mostly in terms of empathy. Here, the authors suggest that empathy is separate from a broader construct, which they term social intuition. This skill, they contend, gives a negotiator the ability to have an impact on the entire negotiation interaction. Yet it requires attention not only to developing empathy, but also nonverbal communication abilities, as well as several other elements. In an effort to make a difficult skill more accessible, they suggest dividing its learning into three elements, structured quite differently from previous discussions: understanding first the self, then the other, and then the elements of “bridging” between these two.
11. Creativity and Flexibility in the Brain
Charlotte Jendresen
Contrary to what might be expected from common usage, people’s creativity and their flexibility rely on entirely different structures in the brain. Here, a brain researcher describes the recent findings of neuroscience in relation to both qualities. Jendresen shows how the experience of aging (sadly) robs everyone of some degree of mental flexibility. The good news is, the brain can be trained for both flexibility and creativity, and your brain will adapt, altering itself physically to respond to your needs.
12. Caring for People on the Edge: Emergency Medicine, Negotiation and the Science of Compassion
James O’Shea
The author, a physician specializing in emergency medicine, finds his work replete with negotiations of all kinds, many of them demanding compassion. Finding similarities to police hostage negotiation work, O’Shea reviews the neuroscience involved, and concludes that professionals of any kind who must demonstrate compassion at work can pay a price in their own peace of mind, or at an extreme, even in their ability to continue to do the job at all, when the demands exceed their time and ability to recharge their batteries of compassion. Most insidiously, the author finds hidden curricula in the training of his profession, and of others, which militate against the professional ever adopting a compassionate enough attitude to really suffer stress – or to do the job properly.
13. Internal Conflict and Its Consequences
Morton Deutsch
Have you ever been in a negotiation where you (or the other side) seem to be acting instinctively, but perhaps not helpfully? Have you wondered what was going on inside your counterpart? Deutsch summarizes how psychological theory applies to basic negotiation, and explains how negotiators’ internal conflicts affect them and everybody else in the room. In a coda about our global community, he adds an analysis of how powerful individuals’ internal conflicts have increasingly played out with disastrous consequences on the world stage.
14. Mental Health Challenges at the Table
Elizabeth Jeglic and Alexander Jeglic
It’s all but routine for a negotiator leaving a meeting to mutter under her breath concerning the perceived mental health issues of someone on the other side. Unfortunately, the research now demonstrates that such suspicions may not always be unreasonable. Mental health issues, it turns out, do not prevent people from assuming and holding high status in many kinds of organizations, so you may be negotiating with borderline mentally ill people with some regularity. Furthermore, we know that high-stress situations like the death of a family member, divorce or job changes, which often lead to negotiations, can trigger mental illness. Here, a psychologist and a lawyer (and sister and brother) analyze the most common types of mental illness, and tell you what to expect from each of the types you are most likely to encounter in negotiations. Crucially, they also provide recommendations as to how to deal with the reality of each type of mental illness.
Section III authors:
Alexandra Crampton is an Associate Professor in Social and Cultural Sciences at Marquette University. She received her B.A. from Stanford and a Master’s in Social Work and Joint Ph.D. (Anthropology and Social Work) from the University of Michigan. She received negotiation training through the Program on Negotiation as a PON research fellow, which was followed by writing on negotiation pedagogy for NP@PON. She delivered the keynote for the 2015 Wisconsin Bar Association training on culture in dispute resolution, providing integration of neuroscience and culture concepts. Her mediation research and practice focus is on elder and family court mediation.
Morton Deutsch (1920-2017) was Professor Emeritus, and Director Emeritus of the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution, at Teachers College, Columbia University. He studied with Kurt Lewin at MIT’s Research Center for Group Dynamics, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1948. He is well-known and has been much honored for his pioneering studies in intergroup relations, cooperation-competition, conflict resolution, social conformity, and the social psychology of justice. His 10 books include The Resolution of Conflict (1973); Distributive Justice (1985); and The Handbook of Conflict Resolution (2000, 2006). He was a past president of more than half a dozen psychological societies.
Noam Ebner is a professor in the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution program, at Creighton University’s Department of Interdisciplinary Studies. Previously an attorney and a mediator, he has taught mediation and negotiation in a dozen countries around the world. He was among the first teachers to engage in online teaching of negotiation and conflict studies, and to explore the potential for Massive Open Online Courses in these
fields. Noam’s research interests include online negotiation and dispute resolution, trust and its role in dispute resolution, negotiation pedagogy and online learning. Noam can be contacted at NoamEbner@creighton.edu; his work can be found at ssrn.com/author=4251-53.
Alexander A. Jeglic is General Counsel for PPP Canada Inc. in Ottawa, Canada. Alexander is also a leader in the American Bar Association, Section of International Law, and teaches procurement law at Carleton University. Alexander’s legal background is in procurement, contracting and alternative dispute resolution.
Elizabeth L. Jeglic, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY in New York City, and a licensed clinical psychologist. Her research interests include the interface of psychology and the criminal justice system. Dr. Jeglic has published over 80 journal articles and book chapters and sits on the editorial board of several leading psychology and criminal justice journals. She is the co-editor of
the book Sexual Violence: Evidence Based Policy and Prevention.
Charlotte Jendresen was born in Denmark and spent seven years in Denmark and New Zealand, earning university degrees in Biotechnology and Human Biology with a specialization in neurobiology. Charlotte moved to Norway in 2012 to attain her PhD in neurobiological studies of Alzheimer’s disease. In late 2017 she moved to Copenhagen, where she is now working as a postdoc. Alongside her studies, she worked for six years at a science museum, translating hardcore science into popular science for museum visitors of all ages. In her spare time she likes to spend time with her dog and rabbits, windsurfing, or playing instruments.
Dr. James O'Shea is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Emory University in Atlanta. He primarily works at Grady Hospital, the busiest trauma center in the Southeast. He was born and raised in Ireland and studied Psychology at Trinity College, Dublin. After three years working in public mental health services in Georgia, USA, he attended medical school at King's College in London, UK. He completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, NJ. His research interests include resident education, humanism in medicine, physician well-being and the psychology of emergency medicine.
Andrea Kupfer Schneider is a Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School, where she teaches Dispute Resolution, Negotiation, Ethics, and International Conflict Resolution and is the director of Marquette’s nationally-ranked dispute resolution program. Professor Schneider has written numerous books, book chapters and articles on negotiation skills and styles, dispute system design, international conflict, and gender and negotiation. She was named the Outstanding Scholar by the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution for 2017. Professor Schneider received her A.B. cum laude from the Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs and Public Policy at Princeton University and her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School.
Alexandra Crampton is an Associate Professor in Social and Cultural Sciences at Marquette University. She received her B.A. from Stanford and a Master’s in Social Work and Joint Ph.D. (Anthropology and Social Work) from the University of Michigan. She received negotiation training through the Program on Negotiation as a PON research fellow, which was followed by writing on negotiation pedagogy for NP@PON. She delivered the keynote for the 2015 Wisconsin Bar Association training on culture in dispute resolution, providing integration of neuroscience and culture concepts. Her mediation research and practice focus is on elder and family court mediation.
Morton Deutsch (1920-2017) was Professor Emeritus, and Director Emeritus of the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution, at Teachers College, Columbia University. He studied with Kurt Lewin at MIT’s Research Center for Group Dynamics, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1948. He is well-known and has been much honored for his pioneering studies in intergroup relations, cooperation-competition, conflict resolution, social conformity, and the social psychology of justice. His 10 books include The Resolution of Conflict (1973); Distributive Justice (1985); and The Handbook of Conflict Resolution (2000, 2006). He was a past president of more than half a dozen psychological societies.
Noam Ebner is a professor in the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution program, at Creighton University’s Department of Interdisciplinary Studies. Previously an attorney and a mediator, he has taught mediation and negotiation in a dozen countries around the world. He was among the first teachers to engage in online teaching of negotiation and conflict studies, and to explore the potential for Massive Open Online Courses in these
fields. Noam’s research interests include online negotiation and dispute resolution, trust and its role in dispute resolution, negotiation pedagogy and online learning. Noam can be contacted at NoamEbner@creighton.edu; his work can be found at ssrn.com/author=4251-53.
Alexander A. Jeglic is General Counsel for PPP Canada Inc. in Ottawa, Canada. Alexander is also a leader in the American Bar Association, Section of International Law, and teaches procurement law at Carleton University. Alexander’s legal background is in procurement, contracting and alternative dispute resolution.
Elizabeth L. Jeglic, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY in New York City, and a licensed clinical psychologist. Her research interests include the interface of psychology and the criminal justice system. Dr. Jeglic has published over 80 journal articles and book chapters and sits on the editorial board of several leading psychology and criminal justice journals. She is the co-editor of
the book Sexual Violence: Evidence Based Policy and Prevention.
Charlotte Jendresen was born in Denmark and spent seven years in Denmark and New Zealand, earning university degrees in Biotechnology and Human Biology with a specialization in neurobiology. Charlotte moved to Norway in 2012 to attain her PhD in neurobiological studies of Alzheimer’s disease. In late 2017 she moved to Copenhagen, where she is now working as a postdoc. Alongside her studies, she worked for six years at a science museum, translating hardcore science into popular science for museum visitors of all ages. In her spare time she likes to spend time with her dog and rabbits, windsurfing, or playing instruments.
Dr. James O'Shea is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Emory University in Atlanta. He primarily works at Grady Hospital, the busiest trauma center in the Southeast. He was born and raised in Ireland and studied Psychology at Trinity College, Dublin. After three years working in public mental health services in Georgia, USA, he attended medical school at King's College in London, UK. He completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, NJ. His research interests include resident education, humanism in medicine, physician well-being and the psychology of emergency medicine.
Andrea Kupfer Schneider is a Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School, where she teaches Dispute Resolution, Negotiation, Ethics, and International Conflict Resolution and is the director of Marquette’s nationally-ranked dispute resolution program. Professor Schneider has written numerous books, book chapters and articles on negotiation skills and styles, dispute system design, international conflict, and gender and negotiation. She was named the Outstanding Scholar by the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution for 2017. Professor Schneider received her A.B. cum laude from the Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs and Public Policy at Princeton University and her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School.