Mental Parsing as a Mixed Blessing for Integrative Agreements: When Parsing Multiple Issues Into Separate Mental Accounts Helps Versus Hurts Negotiators

The impacts of topical mental parsing have well been investigated in both decision-making and consumer behavior research. However, there has been no research on the role of topical mental parsing in the context of negotiations yet. The present research investigates when and why parsing multiple issues into individual mental accounts helps versus impedes the achievement of integrative agreements. We suggest that topical mental parsing can have two opposite effects in negotiations depending on the location of integrative potential. When the integrative potential is located within each mental account, mental parsing serves as an effective tool to cut down the informational complexity brought about by numerous negotiation issues, while still maintaining the opportunities for integrative solutions. Conversely, when the integrative potential is broken up and scattered between different mental accounts, it restricts the discovery of win-win agreements and increases the likelihood of suboptimal solutions.