value - tions , likely actions , and so on . Yet , just as a pilot 's sense of the horizon at night or in a storm can be wildly inaccurate , the psychology of perception systematically leads negotiators to major errors . 3 self - serving Role Bias People tend unconsciously to interpret information pertaining to their own side in a strongly self - serving way . The following experiment shows the process at
work , Harvard researchers gave a large group of execu - tives financial and industry information about one company negotiating to acquire another . The executive subjects were randomly assigned to the negotiating roles of buyer or seller , the information provided to each side was identical . After plenty of time for analy - sis , all subjects were asked for their private assessment ofthe target company 's fair value - as distinct from how they might portray that value in the bargaining process .