Top Harvard Psychologist Steven Pinker: Go Ahead and Get Emotional in Negotiations

Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker is clearly a brilliant guy. Besides being a star at one of the world's top universities, he's written a string of bestsellers (one of which is Bill Gates's favorite book of all time), and dispenses some of the best, pithiest writing advice you'll ever hear. But even the smartest folks in the world are baffled sometimes.

On Big Think recently, Pinker admits one thing that confused him was negotiations. Why do we blow up conversations, storm away from good offers, or stubbornly stick to demands when both parties would benefit from compromise? This goes against basic psychological logic that people generally do what helps them the most.

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