Theoretically, nobody loses in a negotiation. There’s simply no reason for people to accept an agreement that makes them worse off than they were before they started. But in practice, people often accept agreements that work against their best interests. Even more often, they reach less-than-optimal agreements – those that leave one or both parties less well off than they could have been. Why does this happen? Because we make mistakes. We process information incorrectly or allow our…

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Read more stories by Margaret A. Neale.