Widows and orphans

Disciplines > Negotiation > Negotiation tactics > Widows and orphans

Description | Example | Discussion | See also

Description

Get the sympathy vote by showing how you are helping those less fortunate than yourself.

Alternatively, show how what the other person is suggesting will hurt those innocents.

Play to the crowd: Add some drama. If there are others there, play to them as well.

Example

Nice idea, but have you thought about the effect it will have on the children??

I thought that as we go to London, we could stop off to see my father. He is rather unwell and would be cheered up by the visit.

Excuse me Mike, do you agree with Sally? She wants to get rid of Jennifer, who is, as we all know, a struggling single parent.

A woman begging takes a child with her.

Discussion

Using the 'widows and orphans' approach is an appeal to the values of the other person, in particular the broad social moral which says that we should not harm those who are weaker than ourselves.

In normal use, this is a highly effective value for creating social cohesion and support for the needy. In negotiation, it can be a coercive and effective bind.