Biased Choice Technique

Negotiating with the Biased Choice Technique

Offer the other person a set of choices, but bias the set of choices towards those things that you want and away from the things that you do not want.

You can do this the following ways:

1. Don’t talk about what you don’t want.

2. Only include the options that you’ll be fine with so whatever choice they make will be right.

3. Encourage them to choose your preferred option by describing it with excitement. Merely mention the other choices.

4. Use what you know about the other party’s preferences to bias their choice.

Example

Vacations can cause strife and division in some families. Even deciding where to go can make the getaway seem like work. If there is division when it comes to taking your tropical vacation and you have your heart set on Hawaii but your spouse prefers the Caribbean, you could reduce choice by offering your preferred choice and making theirs the unacceptable option. “We could go to Hawaii or the Caribbean. I heard the hurricane season is going to be especially bad this year in the Caribbean.” In this way you are biasing their decision and essentially using forced choice to get what you want.

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