People involved in conflict generally, and in mediation specifically, encounter many events that initiate the physiologic stress response. What is this response and what triggers it? How does the stress response impact judgment, decision-making, and memory? What can mediators do to minimize the deleterious effects of the stress response? Learning the answers to these questions can help to make a more effective mediator.
Mediation creates many stress triggers. Participants may feel unprepared or less competent than their opponent, and this will trigger stress. Just seeing a person with whom there is a history of conflict can be a trigger. Thinking about a previous dispute, confrontation, or compromise is also a trigger. Simply being in an unfamiliar setting can trigger stress, as does uncertainty about an unfamiliar process such as mediation.
