Spoiler title Expanding spoiler text Everyone has conflict situations in their lives. There are several strategies for getting out of conflict: competition; avoidance; adaptation; compromise; cooperation. I used to be a supporter of compromise. Everything changed when I became to comprehend the science of psychology and learned that compromise is not always the most advantageous position for opponents. Let's take the example of an orange. You come to the office and there is an orange on the table. There are you and your colleague in the room. You need this particular orange, and so does your colleague. What to do? Most people immediately offer to divide the orange, that is, they use a compromise strategy. But when making such a decision, you and your colleague are in an information vacuum. You don’t know why your colleague needs an orange, and he doesn’t know why you need a fruit. Removing this vacuum is very simple: you need to talk about it. For example, a colleague needs an orange because he didn’t have time to drink his orange juice at home, and the doctor recommended it to him as a source of vitamins. And you need an orange for content on Instagram (in other words, to take a photo). I use a compromise strategy, everyone gets only 50 percent of what he wants. The “cooperation” strategy is about some agreements between the parties. If you agree (I take a photo and give you this orange), then everyone gets 100 percent of the expected result. This is a clear example of how it can be beneficial for both parties to talk and agree. But the “cooperation” strategy has a disadvantage: it requires more time and effort. With the “competition” strategy, I will simply take the orange, thinking that I need it more. I get 100 percent, and the other person gets 0. With the “avoidance” strategy, we simply leave the orange on the table and postpone the decision on this issue. With the “accommodation” strategy, I give the other person the orange to the detriment of my interests. That is, I don’t get anything, but the other one gets 100 percent. Each strategy has its pros and cons. Therefore, when resolving conflict situations and choosing a specific strategy, you need to ask yourself the question: “What will this give me?” I am a consulting psychologist, hypnologist and psychosomatic specialist. I help build harmonious relationships. * Instagram is owned by Meta, which is recognized as an extremist organization in Russia.