Negotiate in the Mornings

Early-morning negotiations are useful.

First, you’ll have ample time to negotiate.

Second, if you can extract a longer investment of time, your counterpart will be more invested in finalizing an agreement (Malhotra & Bazerman, 2008).

Third, you trigger a primacy effect: Information early in a sequence will become entrenched in long-term memory (Murdock, 1962).

Strive to be the first candidate in any sequence of interviews. While managers choose the best candidate, your interview will pop into their mind more easily – and they will misattribute this ease with a desire to hire you (see Whittlesea, 1993).

If an early time isn’t possible, choose a later time (perhaps 4:00 to 5:00pm). If you can’t be the first interview, strive to be the last interview to trigger a recency effect.

• Malhotra, D., & Bazerman, M. H. (2008). Psychological influence in negotiation: An introduction long overdue. Journal of Management, 34(3), 509-531.
• Murdock Jr, B. B. (1962). The serial position effect of free recall. Journal of experimental psychology, 64(5), 482.
• Whittlesea, B. W. (1993). Illusions of familiarity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 19(6), 1235.