Max Bazerman

So a lot of other listeners, when they hear culture, they might have been thinking China or Japan.

And I think Rose highlights that we have different cultures in different parts of the U.S.

We have different cultures in different industries.

So it's important to understand the world that you're in.

So my first advice to Rose is sounds like life is fine in Nebraska for her, and she should be perfectly comfortable not negotiating in situations that don't call for negotiation.

On the other hand...

If she moves to a place where negotiation is the norm, she needs to adapt to that.

Or if she takes a job and a career where the prices aren't fixed and haggling is normal, she needs to adapt to that.

And in my book, Negotiation and the Game has Changed,

One of the points that I make is that we're now negotiating with more and more people who are different from ourselves, who come from different cultures, and we want to understand what the norms look like.

Rose might also find it intriguing to know that I was in December, I was hiking up to Machu Picchu.

And the guide on the trip said, and by the way, in a lot of emerging economies, it's normal to haggle with people over price.

He said, don't do that.

People in Peru are used to offering you a fair price and you should take it or leave it rather than to haggle.

So it turns out that Cusco and Machu Picchu are

may have a lot in common with Nebraska that wouldn't have been apparent on the surface.

On the other hand, there are times when negotiating matters a whole lot.

30 years ago, Linda Babcock, excellent colleague at Carnegie Mellon, basically found out

that women were less likely to haggle.

And as a result, their starting salaries were too low and that that created enormous pay differences across their career.