In their 2017 research paper,The Surprising Effectiveness of Hostile Mediators, authors Ting Zhang, Francesca Gino, Michael I. Norton conclude:

“In contrast to the intuitions of both mediation “how-to” manuals and our own participants, hostile mediators can increase the likelihood that parties in conflict find solutions to their disagreements. By studying mediator behaviours counter to what is typically recommended, we show that hostile mediators can positively influence negotiators’ motivation and ability to resolve conflict.”

In my February post to the Kluwer Mediation Blog I wrote, “I think there’s little reason to believe that more field-based mediation research focusing on mediation techniques will tell us anything we don’t already know.” I stand by that statement as it relates to “field-based” research but it seems to me that this “angry mediator” research shows that much more work can be done in the realm of theoretical research.  

Indeed, the authors observe, 

“Future research can also investigate the influence of hostility on different types and domains of conflict. In our studies, added hostility shifted perceptions in situations where participants were in conflict over resources and where there were positive zones of possible agreement. However, added hostility may not be helpful in situations where the zone of possible agreement is small, difficult to uncover, or negative. Additionally, hostility from a mediator may be detrimental for relational conflicts that are more personal as opposed to task or procedural conflicts, particularly if the mediator is hostile toward both parties for personal missteps or character flaws that originally ignited the conflict.”

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