103 5. The demise of the ‘rational’ negotiator: emotional forces in conflict and negotiation Gerben A. Van Kleef and Marwan Sinaceur Conflict is a natural fact of life. Whether we focus on interactions between individuals, groups, organizations, or nations—conflicts are omnipres- ent (Pruitt and Carnevale, 1993). Often, the divergent interests that lie at the heart of conflict give rise to intense emotions, which may in turn strongly influence conflict development (Barry and Oliver, 1996; Morris and Keltner, 2000; Van Kleef et al., 2008). This means that attempts at reconciling such divergent interests through negotiation are also likely to be pervaded by emotions. In this chapter we review the state of the art of theory and research on the role of emotions in negotiation. The first part of the chapter is devoted to a review of influential theorizing and research, which is organized according to a distinction between intrapersonal effects of emotional experiences and interpersonal effects of emotional expres- sions. In the second part of the chapter we identify important caveats in the current knowledge and outline several avenues for future research. Before diving into the literature, let us consider some conceptual issues. Various terms are used in reference to emotional phenomena, the most common being affect, mood, and emotion. Affect is the most general term, referring to a subjective feeling that can range from diffuse moods such as cheerfulness or depression to specific and acute emotions such as happiness or anger. The word affect is also used to refer to relatively stable individual dispositions (i.e., trait positive and negative affect; Watson et al., 1988). Emotion and mood are generally seen as subtypes of affect. They are differentiated by the degree to which they are directed toward a specific stimulus—be it a person, an object, or an event (Ekman and Davidson, 1994). Most emotion theories hold that discrete emotions arise as a result of an individual’s conscious or unconscious evaluation (appraisal) of some event as positively or negatively relevant to a particu- lar concern or goal (Frijda, 1986; Lazarus, 1991). Accordingly, emotions are directed toward something, or, more typically, someone (e.g., a col- league, a customer, a negotiation partner), whereas moods are not directed at anything in particular—one can feel cheerful or grumpy for no apparent reason. Emotions are also comparatively short-lived and intense, whereas OLEKALNS 9781781005897 PRINT (M3139).indd 103 OLEKALNS 9781781005897 PRINT (M3139).indd 103 09/04/2013 13:27 09/04/2013 13:27