Negotiation across the social sciences: An interdisciplinary review

Psychological investigations have generated numerous insights into how two parties bargain. To build on this literature, we review recent research across multiple disciplines, focusing on aspects of negotiation that have received relatively little attention, namely individual differences, multiparty negotiations, and contextual factors. Insights into individual differences are observed in the developmental psychology, artificial intelligence, and social psychology literature. Investigations in these domains show that young children can think strategically about exchange, that individual differences shape the information negotiators obtain and how they utilize information, and that situational factors can constrain or facilitate the expression of individual differences. Insights into multiparty negotiations emerge from the social networks and political science literature. Investigations in these domains explore novel multiparty dynamics, highlighting the importance of structural position in bargaining, and demonstrating that relationship history can shape coalition formation. Insights into contextual factors emerge from the economic and public health literature. Investigations in these domains challenge assumptions about core negotiation concepts such as power and alternatives. Overall, an interdisciplinary perspective on negotiation complements and enriches psychological understanding, and provides implications for interventions, future theoretical development, and empirical research.