Negotiation is about entitlements, not interests

The psychological study of negotiation, influenced by economics, has long emphasized the interests of the bargaining parties as the main driver of the negotiation process. This remains the case, even though psychological research has shown that individuals do not behave in the manner predicted by classical economics. A main drawback of the concept of interests is that it is an individual-level construct and, therefore, does not tap directly into the interindividual nature of the negotiation process. In contrast, entitlements can serve as the key notion in the study of negotiation, both conceptually and epistemologically. I argue that at the heart of negotiation is a rule-making process through which parties define each other’s entitlements and duties. If we view negotiation in this way, we can study it as the primary vehicle for the explicit determination of social norms, obligations, and “ought” standards that permeate social life. This view has ramifications for the study of negotiation itself, for the social-psychological study of coregulation, and even for the function of society as a whole.