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Abstract: This article offers suggestions for how mediators and negotiators can use principles of social influence to enhance the process and outcome and increase the likelihood of settlement. The article describes the six basic principles of influence and the fundamental ways in which empirical research has found the influence process to proceed under each. The six principles of effective influence are liking, authority, scarcity, consistency, reciprocity, and social proof. The article provides specific examples of how each principle can be applied in both mediation and negotiation contexts. Ethical and pragmatic reasons not to use the principles in deceptive or coercive ways also are noted.
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