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Symptoms of nervousness may actually help people get what they want, a new study suggests.

New research reveals that you don't have to keep your cool to get a bargain. The thought of having to negotiate over the price of a new car may trigger sweaty palms and racing hearts in some people.  However, new evidence reveals that physiological arousal isn't always damaging and may actually help some people get a good deal.

"It turns out that the effect depends on whether you are someone who dreads or looks forward to negotiating," lead researcher Ashley D. Brown, of the Jared R. Curhan of the Sloan School of Management at MIT, said in a news release. "It's not inherently harmful."

In one experiment, researchers assessed participants' attitudes toward negotiation. Afterwards, they had participants walk on a treadmill while negotiating over the price of a used car. Some participants walked quickly to increase their heart rates while others walked at a slower pace.

Among the participants who did not like negotiation, those who had increased heart rate expressed being less satisfied with their negotiations than the slow-walking participants. However, participants who initially reported positive attitudes were more likely to express greater satisfaction with the negotiation after walking at a faster pace.

In another experiment in which participants had to negotiate an employment compensation package, researchers found that physiological arousal may even improve the negotiating abilities of those with positive attitudes toward negotiation.

Results in the second experiment revealed that participants who look forward to negotiating and who walked while doing so achieve higher economic outcomes than those who sat during the negotiation session.  On the other hand, those who dread negotiating and who walked during the negotiation performed worse.

Researchers said the findings suggest that the effects of physiological arousal are driven by subjective interpretation.  Physiological arousal can be a bad thing for people who dread negotiating because they interpret it as a negative sign of nervousness.  However, arousal for those who like negotiation may boost their performance because it is interpreted as a positive sign of excitement.

Researchers believe the latest findings might also apply to other things.

"We speculate that this polarizing effect of physiological arousal is more widely applicable to other contexts such as public speaking, competitive sports, or test performance, to name a few," Brown said.

The findings are [published in the journal Psychological Science.