Doctoral Dissertation Research: Third-Party Intervention and Perceptions of Fairness: Extending Social Exchange

大多数争议解决是在雇主和雇员、家人或朋友、邻居和其他团体之间进行的，他们在离开法庭、调解员办公室或同意合同条款后仍保持联系。由于这种持续的关系，研究者认为，任何争端解决的一个重要组成部分是冲突双方在过程结束后对彼此的感觉。虽然以往的冲突解决研究主要关注第三方、过程或结果的公平性，但本文的研究重点是参与过程的双方如何看待彼此及其关系。具体而言，该研究询问中介机构在解决过程中的干预如何影响有争议的个人对彼此公平的看法。该研究借鉴了两篇广泛的文献——程序正义和归因理论——来预测第三方参与对公平感的影响。从程序正义的角度，该项目考察了中介如何影响参与者对过程和决策控制的感知。运用归因理论，本研究探讨了第三方如何改善或转移过程中固有的利益冲突的突出性。研究者将在实验环境中收集不同第三方干预水平（高、低、缺席）和个人在争议中的相对权力地位（有利、不利、平等）的数据，但通过计算机模拟参与者的编程行为保持结果不变。通过探索第三方的存在如何影响交换的情感结果，本研究将有助于扩展社会交换理论。该项目还通过调查解决程序中不同程度的干预对冲突各方对公平的看法的影响，增加了解决冲突的研究，使谈判各方回到解决冲突研究的中心。替代性的争议解决形式正在进入法庭并越来越受欢迎，研究这一趋势的影响是很重要的。研究结果对参与争议解决的当事人之间的持续关系具有影响，特别是纠纷调解的兴起是否会产生预期的积极影响，或者是否会对社会关系造成一定的代价。

Linda MolmJessica ColletteUniversity of ArizonaMost dispute resolution is between employers and employees, family or friends, neighbors, and other groups who have continued contact after they leave the courtroom, mediator's office, or agree to contract terms. Because of such ongoing relationships, the investigator argues that a vital component of any kind of dispute resolution is how conflicting parties feel about each other after the process is over. Although previous conflict resolution research focuses primarily on the fairness of the third-party, process or outcome, this dissertation research centers on how the two parties engaged in the process perceive each other and their relations. Specifically, the research asks how intermediaries' intervention in a resolution process affects disputing individuals' perceptions of fairness of one another. The co-PI draws on two extensive literatures - procedural justice and attribution theory - to formulate predictions regarding the effects of third party involvement on perceptions of fairness. From procedural justice the project examines how an intermediary affects the participants' perception of process and decision control. Using attribution theory, the study investigates how a third-party ameliorates or deflects the salience of conflict of interests inherent in the process. The investigator will collect data in an experimental setting varying both the level of third-party intervention (high, low, absent) and an individual's relative power position in the dispute (advantaged, disadvantaged, equal), but holding outcomes constant through programmed behavior of computer simulated actors. The study will contribute to an extension of social exchange theory by exploring how the presence of a third party influences the affective outcomes of exchange. The project also adds to conflict resolution research by investigating the effect of varying levels of intervention in resolution procedures on perceptions of fairness of conflicting parties, bringing the negotiating parties back to the center of the study of conflict resolution. Alternative forms of dispute resolution are entering the courtrooms and gaining popularity and it is important for research to investigate the effects of this trend. Research findings have implications for the ongoing relations between parties engaged in dispute resolution, especially whether the rise of mediation for disputes will have the positive effects predicted, or whether it comes at certain costs to social relationships.