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

亚利桑那大学的Linda MolmJessica Collette大多数纠纷的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，这些团体在离开法庭、调解人办公室或同意合同条款后仍保持联系。由于这种持续不断的关系，调查人员认为，任何类型的争端解决方案的一个重要组成部分是冲突各方在过程结束后对彼此的感觉。虽然以前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感知对方以及它们之间的关系。具体地说，这项研究询问中间人对解决过程的干预如何影响有争议的个人对彼此公平的看法。该研究借鉴了程序正义和归因理论这两个广泛的文献，对第三方介入对公平感的影响进行了预测。从程序正义的角度，该项目考察了中间人如何影响参与者对过程和决策控制的感知。运用归因理论，本研究调查了第三方如何改善或转移在这一过程中固有的利益冲突的突出。调查员将在实验环境中收集数据，第三方干预的程度(高、低、不存在)和个人在争端中的相对权力地位(优势、劣势、平等)都不同，但通过计算机模拟参与者的编程行为保持结果不变。这项研究将通过探索第三方的存在如何影响交换的情感结果来促进社会交换理论的扩展。该项目还通过调查冲突解决程序中不同程度的干预对冲突各方公平感的影响，使谈判各方回到冲突解决研究的中心，从而增加了冲突解决研究的内容。其他解决纠纷的形式正在进入法庭并越来越受欢迎，调查这一趋势的影响对于研究来说很重要。研究结果对参与争端解决的各方之间正在进行的关系有影响，特别是争端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.