UChicago students debate and make deals in ‘Psychology of Negotiation’ course

Editor’s Note: This is part of a series called UChicago Class Visits, spotlighting transformative classroom experiences and unique learning opportunities offered at UChicago.

In Prof. Boaz Keysar’s class “The Psychology of Negotiation,” one of the first things students learn is what negotiation is not.

“The most common misconception is that negotiation is a war,” Keysar said.

In fact, he aims for students to understand how detrimental that mindset is to negotiation—and the psychology behind why that perception is so widespread.

Keysar, the William Benton Professor in Psychology at the University of Chicago, has taught the undergraduate class for the past eighteen years. He says it’s not about the “how-to,” but rather learning the “why” that lies beneath every negotiation.

Instead of centering his class around tricks or rhetorical techniques, he leaves students with a deeper understanding of the cognitive biases, emotional dynamics and trust-building strategies that drive negotiations, from the workplace to the White House. Armed with this deeper understanding, Keysar then challenges students to put their negotiation skills into practice.

The roots of disagreement

“Negotiation” attracts undergraduate students from all disciplines, including English, physics, political science and economics.

Part of the course is a traditional lecture that includes real-world cases and examples from psychological studies. But then it takes an unusual turn, as students split off to negotiate with each other based on simulated cases they have studied throughout the prior week.

For one week’s exercise, for example, students took part in a coalition negotiation, each taking the roles of different parties discussing building a big port. Every constituent—union workers, federal government, environmentalists, competing ports—has their own interests and goals, which do not always align. They must try to reach an agreement without leaving too much potential value on the table.

Other negotiations require participants to debate job salary and benefits, reenact apartment building board disagreements, or sell their family business to a larger corporation.

“Students get very invested in the negotiations, sometimes pretty emotionally,” Keysar said. “Once they do it, they really want to understand why they acted one way and someone else acted another.”

In his lectures, Keysar draws from other psychologists of negotiation to discuss topics such as power’s influence on negotiation, honesty in negotiations and how to maximize the earnings for each side.

Keysar also stresses the value of cooperation in order to maximize both sides’ gains. George Hagle, a fourth-year history and political science major, explained that the course has helped him understand the “roots of disagreements and the formation of compromise,” allowing him to understand the importance of cooperation to gaining mutual benefit.

This shift in mindset is one of the key transformations students experience: They no longer see negotiation as a battle of wills, but as an opportunity to identify the other’s priorities and establish an agreement that accounts for both.

The negotiation exercises also allow students to develop tangible skills while also building camaraderie.

“This is one of the rare classes I've taken where, even though it's a bigger lecture, there's a cohesive community,” Hagle said. “I attribute that to the interactive nature of the class and the method of teaching.”

‘Monumental’ takeaways

Ultimately, students come to the course with varying levels of experience with psychology but leave with both intellectual and applicable understanding.

Keysar frequently receives emails from students who previously took the course, explaining how understanding the psychology has helped them practically, he said.

Current students agreed: “This is an incredibly useful course for all majors. It has taught me how to find creative solutions to complex issues between multiple parties,” said Campbell Herring, fourth-year biology major.

“The prerequisite knowledge is nothing, but the amount of takeaway you receive from each class is monumental,” Herring said. “I don’t think I could name another class that I have taken so much away from.”

When asked for one piece of advice for someone entering a negotiation, Keysar responded: “Do a lot of preparation, and develop a really good alternative.”