The effects of partisan third parties on negotiator behavior and outcome perceptions.

Two sources of third-party partisanship are: (1) the preexisting affiliation a third party may have with the negotiators and (2) the overt support a third party demonstrates by imposing an outcome. In 2 experiments, subjects involved in a negotiation simulation were told prior to negotiation that the third party was either positively affiliated with their side or with their opponent's side. In both studies, third parties imposed settlements on the disputants, reflecting varying degrees of overt support. The results suggest that negative third-party affiliation reduced disputant outcome expectations (thereby improving the likelihood of an agreement) and led to enhanced ratings of outcome and third-party satisfaction relative to favorable third-party affiliation