Bracketing and the Center Mover

The Financial Times reported this week that AIG has reopened talks with MetLife for the sale of AIG’s American Life Insurance Company (Alico) subsidiary. Reportedly, AIG hopes to raise “more than $15 billion” to help repay the $80 billion in bailout funds it has received from U.S. taxpayers.
The article also mentioned MetLife had previously offered [...]

Does Consumer Anger Pay Off?

In a recent article in the Journal of Consumer Research, Eduardo B. Andrade and Teck-Hua Ho explore “emotional gaming” in consumer behavior - concealing your actual emotional state or displaying one different from your actual emotional state to try to improve the result of a consumer negotiation or social interaction.
They found that parties often achieved [...]

Why High Profile Consumer Advocates Get Great Negotiation Results

The New York Times will soon start a consumer advocate column in which its advocate will solicit consumer complaints and selectively intercede and negotiate on their behalf. Called “The Haggler,” I fully expect them to get great results. Why?
Consumer advocates in the media, typified by local television news investigative reporters, often achieve positive results because [...]