Communication Processes Leading to Integrative Agreements: Three Paths to Joint Benefits

Increasingly, conflict researchers are turning their attention to strategies that promote mutually satisfying solutions to problems. They have postulated a variety of communication models to explain the emergence of integrative agreements, but thus far the precise nature of these processes has not been directly verified. After identifying three such models and subjecting them to empirical verification, we found that communication processes both predicted integrative outcomes and mediated the influence of aspirations on integrative outcomes. However, contrary to earlier suppositions, joint concern for one's own and one's partner's needs did not play an instrumental role in any of the communication sequences examined.