http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/stories/person/1307 Stories and external links referencing a person (RSS) en http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/culture-society/articles/which-side-are-you <!--paging_filter--><p>Andrew Kydd is an assistant professor of government at Harvard University who has developed an interesting theory about mediation. As Kydd writes in the introduction to a working paper, "Mediators are often thought to be more effective if they are unbiased, or have no preferences over the issue in dispute. ... For a mediator to be effective, however, the parties must believe that the mediator is telling the truth, especially if the mediator counsels one side not to make a large demand because their opponent has high resolve and will fight. An unbiased mediator who is simply interested in minimizing the probability of war will have a strong incentive to make such statements even if they are not true, hence the parties will not find the mediator credible."</p> Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:19:39 -0400 70652986 3132 at http://harvardscience.harvard.edu