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Much of the training literature for negotiation and mediation suggests that emotions should be simply ignored. The prevailing idea seems to be that negotiators should try to set their feelings aside and mediators should try to steer disputants towards "rational" behavior. However, it seems obvious that strong emotions, in particular, the parties fear and anger, are typically part of the negotiation process. Emotions often cause disputes to escalate and sometimes even cause negotiations to break down. When people feel that their interests are threatened, they often become agitated, angry, and fearful. Ignoring such emotions is likely to harm the negotiation process, not help it. Often trying to suppress or dampen the emotions may simply lead to resentment and the breakdown of agreements. Parties may try to disrupt a process because they do not feel heard, or refuse to follow through with an agreement because their feelings were not recognized. Roger Fisher and William Ury (1983) suggest that the first step in dealing with strong emotions is to acknowledge them, and to try to understand their source. In many cases, these emotions should be dealt with before addressing the substance of the dispute. A refusal to deal with emotional and relational issues may make it impossible to address substantive issues, they argue. Parties must acknowledge the fact that certain emotions are present and allow the other side to express their feelings. They must also be careful not to dismiss others' feelings or lash out in response to emotional outbursts, as this is likely to provoke an even more intense emotional response from the other side. Because emotion often plays a much more central role in decision making than we realize, it is important to look at parties subjective view of the situation when trying to determine whether a settlement can and
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