Designers negotiating with clients or developing at-client dining experiences can apply recent research related to sharing meals. Fishbach and Woolley report that, “When people in a business negotiation share not just a meal but a plate, they collaborate better and reach deals faster…Sharing plates is customary in Chinese and Indian cultures, among others. Because the custom requires people to coordinate their physical actions, it might in turn prompt them to coordinate their negotiations.” Fishbach and Woolley found that outcomes were the same when diners were friends and when they were strangers. This study will be published in Psychological Science.
“Trying to Get People to Agree? Skip the French Restaurant and Go Out for Chinese Food.” 2018. Press release, University of Chicago, https://newschicagobooth.uchicago.edu/newsroom/trying-get-people-agree-skip-french-restaurant-and-go-out-chinese-food
Sally Augustin, PhD,a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.