Negotiations and Logrolling: How Win-Win

Integrative Negotiations Strategies Enable

Negotiators to Breakdown Barriers to
Agreement at the Bargaining Table
In mediation, this research team found logrolling to be an
effective technique for resolving partial impasses.
By PON Staff on April 4th, 2017 / Mediation

Logrolling is the act of trading across issues in a negotiation. Logrolling requires that a
negotiator knows his or her own priorities, but also the priorities of the other side. If one side
values something more than the other, they should be given it in exchange for reciprocity on
issues that are a higher priority to their opponent.

In three experiments, Roman Trtschel and colleagues found that perspective taking helped self-
interested negotiators discover opportunities to log roll and generate mutual gains that reduced
partial impasse.

Interestingly, the study participants used perspective taking to reduce partial impasse through
logrolling despite remaining self-interested.

By contrast, participants who were encouraged to care about the other partys outcomes made
less-efficient concessions in order to avoid impasse.
Thus, to reach mutually beneficial agreements in negotiation, an understanding of the other
sides experience may be more important than an altruistic motivation to improve overall
outcomes.

Logrolling in Negotiation

In their study, Trtschel and his team looked at whether perspective taking might be particularly
useful when negotiators are facing a partial impasse.

Sometimes in negotiation, parties fail to reach agreement and go their separate waysthat is,
they reach an impasse. Partial impasse is also possible: negotiators cant see eye to eye on certain
issues, but they make enough headway on others to wrap up a deal.

For example, a divorcing couple may efficiently divide up most of their assets, yet fail to resolve
who should get several items, which remain in storage indefinitely. When a partial impasse
occurs, valuable resources can be squandered and opportunities missed.

The research team found logrolling to be an effective technique for resolving partial impasses. In
negotiation, logrolling is the process of making beneficial trades across issues based on an
understanding of each others preferences. If one estranged spouse really wants the flat-screen
TV, the other might not mind trading it for a treasured dining table.

Logrolling may sound simple, but it can be quite difficult to implement in a negotiation when
parties have self-serving goals and care little about the other sides outcomes. In such cases,
social projection and stereotyping can run rampant, and inefficient agreements are likely.

But in three experiments, Trtschel and colleagues found that perspective taking helped self-
interested negotiators discover opportunities to logroll that reduced partial impasse.

Interestingly, the study participants used perspective taking to reduce partial impasse through
logrolling despite remaining self-interested.

By contrast, participants who were encouraged to care about the other partys outcomes made
less-efficient concessions in order to avoid impasse.

Thus, to reach mutually beneficial agreements in negotiation, an understanding of the other

sides experience may be more important than an altruistic motivation to improve overall
outcomes.

Although some people (particularly those who have lived abroad) may be naturally inclined
toward perspective taking, in this study, simply telling participants to focus on the other sides
intentions and interests improved their perspective taking and their performance.

Thats good news for negotiators who want to maximize their own outcomes by reaching a
deeper knowledge of their counterparts interests.