Why Can't They Settle? The Psychology of Relational Disputes

Authors

Harry L. Munsinger, Law Office of Harry L. Munsinger
Donald R. Philbin Jr., Picture It Settled

Abstract

Business partners, spouses, and employees all make deals. Whether this means surgeons forming a partnership, spouses dividing child care responsibilities, or prospective workers negotiating terms of employment, everyone negotiates deals. Many of those deals will change by friendly amendment, modified course of dealing, or amicable termination. Some will result in disputes of varying intensity. Our focus is on disputes that not only generate litigation, but lead to the predictably irrational negotiations that resolve most litigated disputes. In other words, we explore what happens when people move from the romance phase of in-group behavior, where they assume the best of others, to stilted conflict between out-groups, where people assume the worst.

Disciplines

Dispute Resolution and Arbitration | Law | Law and Society | Psychiatry and Psychology

Recommended Citation

Harry L. Munsinger & Donald R. Philbin Jr., Why Can't They Settle? The Psychology of Relational Disputes, 18 Cardozo J. Conflict Resol. 311 (2017).
Available at: https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/cjcr/vol18/iss2/4