Howard Raiffa on negotiation and decision making

Howard Raiffa taught a course on negotiation analysis which became the most popular course at the Kennedy School at Harvard.

"His students engaged in sometimes cutthroat simulated negotiations, which prompted The Harvard Crimson to ask him in 1979 whether the curriculum taught students to lie in actual business dealings. He replied by citing a letter about the former president of the University of Chicago.

"'When, in the 1950s,' the letter began, 'Robert Hutchins was hauled before a congressional committee and asked if it was true that the University of Chicago taught communism, he replied: "Yes. And in the medial school we teach cancer."

"'It's a valid analogy,' Professor Raiffa replied, according to the The Crimson. 'To deal with a problem, we have to teach about it.'

"The newspaper said he concluded his course with this wish: 'When we see we could improve our profit or further maximize our desired result, we might ask, Is this a "dirty dollar" or a "clean one" that we could earn here? What would happen if everybody did this? Would we be able to sleep at night if we did this? How would we feel if we had to explain this to our families?'

"'I hope that in answering these questions, you will favor the course of action embracing a higher moral standard.'"

--NY Times, Howard Raiffa, mathematician who studied decision making, dies at 92, July 13, 2016