Expressing anger during negotiations cool at times

Bringing anger to the negotiating table may at times be helpful as researchers have found that suppressing anger about important points may cause negotiators to lose the focus of discussions.

"These findings cast doubts on the belief that negotiators should always suppress their anger," said lead researcher Bo Shao from University of New South Wales in Australia.

For the study, 204 undergraduate students from a university in the US were enrolled to participate in an online negotiation experiment.

To test the influence of anger that is related to the issue at hand, the person with whom the participants negotiated online was intentionally provocative throughout the negotiations.

It was found that negotiators did not necessarily become mentally exhausted when they tried to suppress their anger. Instead, they lost focus on the matters at hand if they tried to quash their feelings about issues that were integral to the discussions.

The same did not happen if the negotiators bottled up their infuriation about an incidental matter.

The source of emotions can play an important role in regulating feelings, the findings showed.

"To be effective, negotiators should be aware when it is detrimental or not to do so, and adopt strategies that help them maintain their focus," Shao noted.

The study appeared in the Journal of Business and Psychology.