Do not drink hot coffee when you are negotiating

If you want to succeed in a negotiation, put down your hot cup of coffee.

A 2008 study by Lawrence Williams of the University of Colorado and John A. Bargh of Yale will clarify why.

The researchers asked participants to come to the lab to answer some short questions. But the experiment actually started before they entered this room.

Each participant will join a research assistant to enter the elevator. She had just asked the participant to take a cup of coffee while she wrote his name.

Half of the participants took a cup of hot coffee, and the other half held a cup of iced coffee.

When participants came to the lab, they were asked to assess the personality of a stranger, to see if they were generous, caring, kind or warm.

Photo: Telegraph

The results showed that participants holding hot coffee cups commented on "warm" strangers. The authors concluded that holding onto a warm thing makes people feel more loved by others.

According to Professor Thalma Lobel of Tel Aviv University, it is part of "cognitive expression" , a field of development in psychology that shows that spiritual life is part of your material life. She wrote about it in her new book.

"As a child, we learn concepts such as near or far, soft or rough, warm or cold." Lobel said: "On the basis of specific concepts we learn abstract concepts. When we touch something warm, not aware of that process, it activates the concept of a warm personality . "

Another experiment done by Williams and Bargd will help us see why a hot beverage can destroy a negotiation.

In this experiment, they told participants that they would be looking at a new product - a therapeutic cushion - as part of a consumer market research. The mattress may be hot or cold, participants will use it for a period of time before making a decision whether to recommend a friend to buy this product.

But then the experiment really started. Researchers asked participants to choose a gift as a reward for participating in the study. Participants can choose to enjoy their own gift or gift certificate for their friend. Only 25% of people use cold pads to give this gift while up to 50% of people using hot mattresses choose to give gifts.

In other words, when holding a warm object often leads to wider actions . This will be great when making friends - but that's a problem if you're in a negotiation.

So the next time you ask for a raise, choose a coffee with ice!