Welcome to the American Negotiation Institute's podcast, where we will teach you the skills

you need to get more out of life. And now your host, Kwame Christian. Hello everyone, and

thank you for joining me on this next podcast. Today we're going to talk about a very common and controversial technique in negotiations and that is bluffing.

And so let me tell you up front that this is a strategy that I do not subscribe to. But it's important for us to review these strategies,

even if we don't plan on using them because someone could use it against us,

and we need to know how to protect ourselves in those circumstances.

So what is bluffing?

Bluffing is a threat to do something that you don't plan on doing.

So let me give you a non-negotiation example just to make it really clear.

If I'm walking down the street and somebody says, hey, I'm going to punch you in the face.

And I say, no, you're not.

And then the person says, yeah, you're right. I'm not going to do that.

That would be a bluff. The person told me they were going to do something and they didn't follow

through. Now, let's say same situation. They say, hey, I'm going to punch you in the face. And I say,

no, you're not. And then they punched me in the face then that wasn't a bluff that

that was more like a promise so essentially a bluff is another version of a lie

so the reason why bluffing is effective is because it creates pressure on the other

side and in an effort to alleviate that pressure the other side gives the bluffing party what they want.

So what are the dangers of bluffing for the bluffer? So credibility is on the line.

Credibility is established through consistency and follow-through. If someone calls you on your bluff,

you lose credibility. And that's bad. In order to be

persuasive, you need to be credible. Your threats need to be credible. And also your reputation is at

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