Although contracts provide safeguards against risk, they can also signal low expectations for a relationship (e.g., suggesting a prenuptial agreement.) Three studies document how attempts to create more complete contracts, driven by a desire to effectively manage the potential pitfalls in a...

Rather than acting as a safeguard, contracts may actually damage relationships. Using field and lab studies, we assessed the effects of contracts on contract formation, implementation, and ultimate outcomes. Studies 1 and 2 showed that the presence of a contract led people to anticipate more...

Bridging the literatures on social dilemmas, intergroup conflict, and social hierarchy, we systematically varied the intergroup context in which social dilemmas were embedded to investigate how costly contributions to public goods influence status conferral. We predicted that contribution...

This research investigated the reciprocal relationship between mental models of conflict and various forms of dysfunctional social relations in organizations, including experiences of task and relationship conflicts, interpersonal hostility, workplace ostracism, and abusive supervision. We...

Two experiments utilized a new experimental paradigm – the IPD-MD game – to study how relative deprivation at the group level affects intergroup competition. The IPD-MD game enables group members to make a costly contribution to either a within-group pool that benefits fellow in-group...