Negotiating, Fast and Slow

World-renowned social scientist Daniel Kahneman has conducted pioneering work on human judgment, intuition, and decision-making under uncertainty. But how do these theories play out in the context of negotiating, whether in the world of government, business, or family life? What can negotiators do to avoid falling into cognitive pitfalls and improve the quality of decision-making? And how can one navigate complex decision-making in emotionally charged negotiations?

Following an introduction by Harvard University President Lawrence Bacow, Professor Kahneman sheds light on these and other timely topics in a conversation with Professor Daniel Shapiro, Director of the Harvard International Negotiation Program, and with a panel of undergraduate student members of the Harvard College International Negotiation Program.

This is a discussion with Daniel Kahneman, a Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs Emeritus at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs the Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Princeton University, and a fellow of the Center for Rationality at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Dr. Kahneman has held the position of professor of psychology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (1970-1978), the University of British Columbia (1978-1986), and the University of California, Berkeley (1986-1994). Dr. Kahneman is a member of the National Academy of Science, the Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, the Society of Experimental Psychologists, and the Econometric Society. He has been the recipient of many awards, among them the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association (1982) and the Grawemeyer Prize (2002), both jointly with Amos Tversky, the Warren Medal of the Society of Experimental Psychologists (1995), the Hilgard Award for Career Contributions to General Psychology (1995), the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (2002), and the Lifetime Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association (2007). Dr. Kahneman holds honorary degrees from numerous Universities.

This discussion is moderated by Daniel Shapiro, Ph.D., Founder and Director of the Harvard International Negotiation Program, is associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital and affiliate faculty at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. He is author of Negotiating the Nonnegotiable: How to Resolve Your Most Emotionally Charged Conflicts and coauthor of Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate. Professor Shapiro teaches conflict resolution at Harvard College; instructs psychology interns at Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital; and leads executive education sessions at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, Harvard Kennedy School, and Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital. He has served on the faculty at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, and at the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has launched successful conflict resolution initiatives in the Middle East, Europe, and East Asia, and for three years chaired the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Conflict Resolution. Focusing extensively on the emotional and identity-based dimensions of conflict resolution, he developed a conflict management curriculum that has reached one million youth across more than 20 countries. He has contributed to The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and other popular publications, and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Psychological Association’s Early Career Award, the Cloke-Millen Peacemaker of the Year award, and Harvard’s Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the oldest of the teaching awards given out by the Undergraduate Council.

Student Panelists include:
Eura Choi (’24) Co-president of the Harvard College International Negotiation Program
Nim Ravid (’25) Member of Harvard College International Negotiation Program
Lucas Woodley (’23) Co-president of the Harvard College International Negotiation Program