Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

Mediators work in an intense environment with parties who are often quite hostile to each other. Research shows that humor is a social lubricant that can facilitate communication, establish leadership, and promote group cohesion. This article proposes that humor is a tool that mediators can use in appropriate mediation situations to diminish negative feelings, facilitate negotiations, and even achieve resolutions in a shorter period of time, eliminating the need for arbitration and reducing the strain on the parties’ resources. It also advocates including humor in mediation training curricula.

Mediation has become a commonly accepted form of alternative dispute resolution. It involves the use of a neutral third-party mediator to help the parties to a dispute reach a mutually satisfactory resolution.1 The institutionalization of mediation in the private sector began with the passage of the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947.2 During its infancy, what made a good mediator was unknown to academia and the general public. Julius Manson described a mediator’s professional equipment as consisting of “subtle, formless personal elements whose identification has baffled social scientists” and went on to identify 25 desirable qualities in a mediator, which he allocated to five categories: character, intellectual, emotional, social, and technical (see Table 1).3