Who Wins in Settlement Negotiations?

When lawsuits are resolved out of court, what determines thesettlement price? This article uses a laboratory simulationand path analysis to estimate the relative importance of measurablevariables in determining who wins the battle for the cooperativesurplus. In the simulated negotiation conditions, seven variablesexplained more than half of the variation in settlement outcomesachieved by participants, with negotiators’ predictionsof their opponent's reservation prices the most important, followedby negotiator gender and amount of first offer. Although thespecific context of this article is settlement, the insightsgenerated are applicable to any two-party, distributive negotiation.     

Goffman on the Jury: Real Jurors’ Attention to the “Offstage” of Trials

Social psychologist Erving Goffman, in his classic work The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, provides a framework that explains why jurors may turn their attention at the courthouse to information not formally presented from the witness stand. We dub this “offstage observation,” a type of juror behavior that has not been systematically examined empirically. Analyzing a unique data source of 50 actual jury deliberations in civil trials, we find that jurors do look to the offstage in evaluating the claims of the parties. However, in contrast to predictions, these observations played a surprisingly minor role in the jury deliberation process.     

Social problem solving,anxiety, and depression in adult male prisoners

Objectives. Social problem‐solving ability has been identified as a significant mediator between stressful life‐events and psychological distress in community samples. This study examined the relationships between social problem solving, anxiety, and depression in adult male prisoners. The hypothesis was that a negative problem orientation (NPO) would be the strongest predictor of anxiety and depression. Methods. Participants (N=68) completed the Social Problem‐Solving Inventory–Revised: Short Version (SPSI‐R:S) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Results. NPO was found to be the sole predictor of anxiety and depression. Conclusion. NPO includes feelings of nervousness, threat, and fear in response to problems. In a prison setting, this may serve to protect the individual against conflict with and abuse by dominant others. However, high levels of fear and anxiety may be disabling both for coping with imprisonment and for effective participation in rehabilitation programmes. While this raises issues regarding prison cultures and the damage imprisonment may cause to individuals, it also indicates that interventions to assist some prisoners to cope are required.