Three articles and a book review appear in this issue. It opens with a review essay on the first‐mover and second‐mover advantages in negotiation. In “To Bid or Not to Bid? That is the Question! First‐ vs. Second‐Mover Advantage in Negotiations,” Yossi Maaravi, Aharon Levy, and Ben Heller review the research on first and second offers. Noting that research over the past two decades has established a first‐mover advantage based on the anchoring and adjustment heuristic, they discuss recent research pointing to a second‐mover advantage in certain cases. They discuss three key factors that may explain when it is best to make an offer: information, power, and strategy. Negotiators who consider these three factors when deciding whether to move first are, the authors argue, most likely to achieve better negotiation outcomes.
While much ink has been spilled over the question of whether to move first or second in negotiations, much less attention has been given to the relationship between negotiation and the interrogation of detainees, which is the focus of the next article. In “Applying Negotiation Theory to the Interrogation of Detainees,” Robert B. McKersie applies negotiation concepts to the interrogation of detainees through a discussion of the case of “The Man in the Snow White Cell,” which analyzes the interrogation of a high‐level intelligence officer (Tai) for the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. McKersie examines the relevance of the theory he developed with the late Dick Walton in the classic text, A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations, first published in 1965. Examining the strategies of fostering and forcing, McKersie speculates on how American interrogators could have obtained more useful information from Tai by capitalizing on his love for poetry, his relationship with his father, and his pride in being a dedicated intelligence officer.
Our next article takes us from interrogation to the very different context of education. In “A Practical Guide to Negotiation Simulation Writing,” Peter Kesting and Remigiusz Smolinski offer a step‐by‐step guide to writing negotiation simulations, in which they detail how negotiation simulations can be structured and what elements they should include. The authors offer blueprints for writing six types of simulations: short introductory, distributive, integrative, multi‐issue, multiparty, and multiparty multi‐issue. They assess which topics each type of simulation is best suited to teaching, such as joint interests, integrative negotiations, BATNAs, and reservation points. The article will be of great utility to readers interested in creating negotiation simulations, teaching simulation writing, and understanding how simulations are structured and which types are best suited for introductory and advanced negotiation classes.
The issue concludes with a review of Bernard S. Meyer and Jaqueline N. Font‐Guzmán's The Neutrality Trap: Disrupting and Connecting for Social Change. In their review, Lydia Nussbaum and Jennifer W. Reynolds note that mediators are taught to be neutral—to guide the parties in surfacing issues, resolving differences, and reaching an agreement. Departing from such conventional wisdom, Meyer and Font‐Guzmán argue that mediators must be committed to system change and to confronting power dynamics, which may require them to reassess their choice of neutrality.
Taken together, the articles in this issue tap into questions that have received attention in our field. These include efficacious bargaining strategies, dealing with obdurate parties in difficult situations, and the art of developing simulations for training and education. The articles provide new insights of value to researchers and practitioners on the importance of understanding the broader context within which bargaining moves are made, the use of positive affirmation tactics to obtain valuable information, and the nuts and bolts of designing exercises for different pedagogical purposes. In keeping with a long tradition at Negotiation Journal, these articles move our knowledge base forward while also offering suggestions for better practices in a variety of situations.
