You are negotiating to buy a house. So far the sellers have been very cooperative in working out the terms of the sale and engaged in an integrative style of negotiation. Now however there is a problem. There is a wrought iron horse mounted on the exterior of the house on the chimney. The seller did not specifically exclude this on the sale agreement but now wants to keep it, saying it was a birthday gift from a family member. You like the horse and would like to have it remain with the house, but because the seller has been so cooperative on everything else, you aren’t sure whether to pursue this.
1. Do you have any obligation, moral or otherwise, to cooperate with the sellers since they have been cooperative with you? 2. If the sellers had engaged in distributive bargaining tactics and were generally uncooperative would your answer to question 1 be different? How? 3. To what extent, if any, should you reciprocate the other party’s behavior when negotiating?
