Unlocking integrative potential: Expressed emotional ambivalence and negotiation outcomes

•Implications of expressed emotional ambivalence in mixed-motive negotiations are examined.•Expressed ambivalence elicited integrative outcomes in negotiations.•Expressed ambivalence elicited inferences of submissiveness.•Inferred submissiveness mediated effect of ambivalence on integrative outcomes.

This paper examines how one negotiator’s expressed emotional ambivalence can foster integrative outcomes. Study 1 demonstrated that observing a negotiation partner’s emotional ambivalence leads negotiators to come up with more integrative agreements. Study 2 examined a proposed mechanism: Expressed ambivalence leads to an increased perceived ability to influence the ambivalent negotiator because it suggests submissiveness. Study 3 demonstrated that perceived submissiveness mediates the effects of observed emotional ambivalence on integrative agreements. Implications of these findings for negotiation and emotions research, and directions for future research, are discussed.