A COMPARISON OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SUBSTANTIVE AND CONTEXTUAL MEDIATION TACTICS

The effectiveness of three mediation tactics was compared in two labor atory studies. It was hypothesized that a content mediation procedure which involved identifying the priorities of both parties and suggesti ng a trade-off of low for high priority issues would be most effective in helping to resolve the dispute, followed by an issue identificatio n mediation procedure in which priorities were identified but no sugge stions were made. A positive framing mediation procedure in which the benefits of a negotiated settlement were emphasized was expected to be somewhat less effective. In Study 1, 64 students played the role of c ompany negotiator and interacted with a programmed citizen group negot iator. All three mediation tactics produced more satisfactory outcomes (higher joint payoffs) than did a no-mediation condition. In Study 2, 46 pairs of students negotiated with one another and received content mediation, issue identification mediation, positive framing mediation , or no mediation. Negotiators receiving content mediation achieved mo re satisfactory outcomes (higher joint profits) than did negotiators i n the other 3 conditions. Results are discussed in terms of a continge ncy model of mediation effectiveness.