Strong Conflict Research Articles

Energy justice in post-Paris India: Unpacking consensus and conflict through storylines and discourse coalitions

The paper investigates the discursive consensus and conflict that unfolded in the first five years after the Paris Agreement while making decisions on the pivotal justice principles in Indian energy policy. It employs discourse network analysis and draws on the concepts of storylines and discourse coalitions to analyze media discourse as well as the prominent state and non-state actors that frame it. Our findings identify three major themes in the discourse: first, a strong consensus on the intersection of energy poverty with other intra-generational injustices and renewables as a solution for ensuring energy justice; second, a mild conflictual narrative resulting in three discourse coalitions that underscores the lack of affordability, appreciation of inter-generational justice, and due process in the policies targeted to improve energy availability; and third, a strong conflict between availability and sustainability in the discussion around fossil fuel, non-fossil fuel, and renewables, resulting in three coalitions in favour of each. The paper concludes by highlighting the need to strengthen the due process component for an inclusive policy directed towards enhanced and renewable-based energy access.

Distribution and disturbance dynamics of habitats suitable for Suaeda salsa

Suaeda salsa, as the last biological barrier of coastal wetlands from land to sea, is one of the best nature-based restoration solution for shoreline stabilization and soil improvement in coastal wetlands. The quality of habitat determines the potential scope of wetland ecological restoration. To enlarge the Suaeda salsa area and to prevent the erosion and degradation of coastal wetland shorelines, we assessed the suitability of habitats for Suaeda salsa growth and identified the causes of encroachment into areas suitable for Suaeda salsa growth. Assessing the habitat suitability of the community and its disturbance status can not only effectively determine the suitable areas for Suaeda salsa ecological restoration, but also can propose targeted solutions according to the interference factors. Moreover, this way can greatly improve the survival rate and coverage area of Suaeda salsa restoration, reduce unnecessary input and loss, enhance the ability to resist coastal wetland shoreline erosion and degradation, and maintain the stability and integrity of the coastal wetland ecosystem. In this study, based on the data of 180 sampling points in the Liaohe estuary wetland, habitat suitability was identified, and the MaxEnt model (habitat suitability model) was used to analyze the suitable distribution area. The interannual changes in Suaeda salsa and reclamation activities in the Liaohe estuary wetland during the past 30 years were extracted from Landsat remote sensing images, and the temporal and spatial dynamic relationship between the distribution of Suaeda salsa and reclamation was analyzed. The dominant factors affecting the distribution of Suaeda salsa were water salinity as well as soil Cd and Zn levels, with influence weights of 49.1%, 28.9%, and 18.0%, respectively, and a total weight of 96%. Compared with the existing 596 hm2 of Suaeda salsa vegetation in the Liaohe estuary wetland, the area highly suitable for growth was 12,306 hm2, whereas the area with medium suitability was 12,100 hm2. Reclamation and aquaculture areas accounted for 33.31% of the highly suitable area and were the main reasons for habitat fragmentation. The study explained the reasons for the difficulty of ecological restoration of Suaeda salsa due to unsuitable habitat quality, and revealed a strong conflict between coastal reclamation and environmental protection, suggesting that the protection of coastal wetlands should consider changes in industrial model strategy. The restoration, reconstruction, and sustainable management of Suaeda salsa communities can be achieved by reducing the proportion of reclamation areas. This study improves the ecological restoration theory of degraded wetlands and provides a theoretical basis for coastal wetland protection and nature-based restoration programs.

Plastid phylogenomic analyses of the Selaginella sanguinolenta group (Selaginellaceae) reveal conflict signatures resulting from sequence types, outlier genes, and pervasive RNA editing

Different from the generally conserved plastomes (plastid genomes) of most land plants, the Selaginellaceae plastomes exhibit dynamic structure, high GC content and high substitution rates. Previous plastome analyses identified strong conflict on several clades in Selaginella, however the factors causing the conflictions and the impact on the phylogenetic inference have not been sufficiently investigated. Here, we dissect the distribution of phylogenetic signals and conflicts in Selaginella sanguinolenta group, the plastome of which is DR (direct repeats) structure and with genome-wide RNA editing. We analyzed the data sets including 22 plastomes representing all species of the S. sanguinolenta group, covering the entire geographical distribution from the Himalayas to Siberia and the Russian Far East regions. We recovered four different topologies by applying multispecies coalescent (ASTRAL) and concatenation methods (IQ-TREE and RAxML) on four data sets of PC (protein-coding genes), NC (non-coding sequences), PCN (the concatenated PC and NC), and RC (predicted RNA editing sites “C” were corrected by “T”), respectively. Six monophyletic clades, S. nummularifolia clade, S. rossii clade, S. sajanensis clade, S. sanguinolenta I clade, S. sanguinolenta II clade, and S. sanguinolenta III clade, were consistently resolved and supported by the characteristics of GC content, RNA editing frequency, and gene content. However, the relationships among these clades varied across the four topologies. To explore the underlying causes of the uncertainty, we compared the phylogenetic signals of the four topologies. We identified that the sequence types (coding versus non-coding), outlier genes (genes with extremely high |ΔGLS| values), and C-to-U RNA editing frequency in the protein-coding genes were responsible for the unstable phylogenomic relationship. We further revealed a significant positive correlation between the |ΔGLS| values and the variation coefficient of the RNA editing number. Our results demonstrated that the coalescent method performed better than the concatenation method in overcoming the problems caused by outlier genes and extreme RNA editing events. Our study particularly focused on the importance of exploring the plastid phylogenomic conflicts and suggested conducting concatenated analyses cautiously when adopting organelle genome data.

A two-stage approach with softmax scoring mechanism for a multi-project scheduling problem sharing multi-skilled staff

This paper studies a multi-project scheduling problem sharing multi-skilled staff (MSMPSP). In a distributed decision-making environment, each project is independently scheduled by its project managers, while multiple projects compete for limited staff with multiple skills. A two-stage decomposition model, including an initial local scheduling stage and a global coordination stage, is established to describe this problem. Then, a two-stage approach with softmax scoring mechanism (TSA-SSM) is proposed to solve the local schedule of minimizing the single-project makespan and the global coordination decision of minimizing the total tardiness cost (TTC). According to the local scheduling plan obtained by the forward–backward scheduling genetic algorithm (FBSGA), the softmax scoring mechanism uses a greedy assignment strategy to solve the resource conflicts in the global decision stage, which is combined with the characteristics of multi-skilled staff. Based on the collection of multi-project instances, some numerical experiments are carried out. The results show that our TSA-SSM gets better solutions to large-size and strong conflict instances than some distributed and centralized methods, which proves that our method can effectively coordinate the allocation of multi-skilled staff among multiple projects. In addition, further experiments show that our method is also suitable for solving de-coupled problems, and satisfactory results are obtained.

Second-Degree Price Discrimination by a Two-Sided Monopoly Platform

We study second-degree price discrimination by a two-sided monopoly platform. The incentive constraints of the agents on the value creation side may be in conflict with internalizing externalities on the value capture side, which may render pooling optimal. Even without such conflict between the two sides, pooling may be optimal due to type-dependent Spence effects when the preferences of the marginal agents diverge from those of the average agents on the value capture side. We perform a welfare analysis of price discrimination and show that prohibiting price discrimination improves welfare when there is a strong conflict between the two sides. (JEL D42, D62, D82, L12, L82)

Plant biodiversity declines with increasing coffee yield in Ethiopia's coffee agroforests

Abstract Tropical agroforestry systems provide farmers with resources for their livelihoods, but are also well‐recognized as refuges for biodiversity. However, the relationship between yield and biodiversity might be negative in these systems, reflecting a potential trade‐off between managing for increased yield or biodiversity. The potential for synergies will depend partly on the shape of the biodiversity–yield relationship, where a concave relationship suggests a faster decline in biodiversity with increasing yields than a linear or convex shape. We studied the relationship between biodiversity (plant species richness and composition) and coffee yield along a gradient of management in south‐western Ethiopia, coffee's native range. We inventoried species richness and community composition of woody plants, herbaceous plants and bryophytes at 60 sites. We also measured coffee management‐related variables and assessed coffee yield for 3 consecutive years at each site. Species richness of woody plants had a concave relationship with coffee yield, that is, tree richness declined fast initially before levelling out at higher yields, whereas there was no relationship between coffee yield and species richness of herbaceous plants or bryophytes. Species composition of woody plants, herbaceous plants and bryophytes all had a concave relationship with coffee yield. From a methodological perspective, we found that multi‐year data on yield were necessary to reliably assess the relationship between biodiversity and yield, and that the number of coffee shrubs or coffee dominance were poor proxies for yield when trying to capture the biodiversity–yield relationship. Synthesis and applications. The concave relationship between biodiversity components (species richness and composition) and yield suggests that there is a strong conflict between the goals of increasing production and conserving biodiversity. However, it is important to recognize that this pattern is largely driven by the very low‐yielding sites in natural forests. Here, even minor intensification of coffee management seems to rapidly erode biodiversity. Along the rest of the productivity gradient, there was generally no negative relationship between yield and biodiversity, implying opportunities for developing strategies for increasing yields without biodiversity loss.

Sectoral policies cause incoherence in forest management and ecosystem service provisioning

Various national policies guide forest use, but often with competing policy objectives leading to divergent management paradigms. Incoherent policies may negatively impact the sustainable provision of forest ecosystem services (FES), and forest multifunctionality. There is uncertainty among policymakers about the impacts of policies on the real world. We translated the policy documents of Finland into scenarios including the quantitative demands for FES, representing: the national forest strategy (NFS), the biodiversity strategy (BDS), and the bioeconomy strategy (BES). We simulated a Finland-wide systematic sample of forest stands with alternative management regimes and climate change. Finally, we used multi-objective optimization to identify the combination of management regimes matching best with each policy scenario and analysed their long-term effects on FES.The NFS scenario proved to be the most multifunctional, targeting the highest number of FES, while the BES had the lowest FES targets. However, the NFS was strongly oriented towards the value chain of wood and bioenergy and had a dominating economic growth target, which caused strong within-policy conflicts and hindered reaching biodiversity targets. The BDS and BES scenarios were instead more consistent but showed either sustainability gaps in terms of providing timber resources (BDS) or no improvements in forest biodiversity (BES). All policy scenarios resulted in forest management programs dominated by continuous cover forestry, set-aside areas, and intensive management zones, with proportions depending on the policy focus. Our results highlight for the first time the conflicts among national sectoral policies in terms of management requirements and effects on forest multifunctionality. The outcomes provide leverage points for policymakers to increase coherence among future policies and improve implementation of multiple uses of forests.

The continental, the hemispheric and the global Antarctica: Southern perspectives of climate change and the governance of Antarctica

ABSTRACT The present paper seeks to examine southern perspectives on climate change and their effects on Antarctica. Following that objective, the paper analyses, from a theoretical/philosophical and historical perspective, three different images of Antarctica that have played key roles in shaping the governance of the continent. Thus, I distinguish between the idea of a continental Antarctica, characterised as exceptional and isolated; the idea of a hemispheric – or regional – Antarctica, which relates to the vicinity of the southern hemisphere countries, their environmental identity with the southern polar regions and the more direct and immediate linkages between the Antarctic and the southern countries’ environments; and the idea of a global Antarctica, which stress the planetary dynamics that interlink the continent with the global phenomena. Whether the Antarctic Treaty and the evolution of the Antarctic Treaty System seem to have incorporated those different images successfully, the evolving and increasing phenomenon of climate change has stressed the idea of the global Antarctica as opposed to the continental Antarctica, disregarding the image of the hemispheric Antarctica. That could lead to efforts to widen or even open up participation in the regime, an option that most likely would confront a strong rebuttal from existing southern member countries, in particular from those that hold territorial claims upon Antarctica. As a conclusion, I argue that any successful attempt to address the global problem of climate change needs to take into account the perspectives of the southern countries and their particular identity/links with the Antarctic region, including their environments; and that any possible governance framework would need to accommodate the three disparate visions of Antarctica in order to be successful and ensure that the Antarctic remains free from strong political discord and conflicts.

Keston College (1969–1989) and the evaluation of its activities by the Polish communist intelligence

During the Cold War, people split in two camps would not only enter into political, military and economic arguments, but also clash in a strong ideological conflict. In this period, when the Western slogan: ‘Better dead than red’ was on everyone’s lips, ruling leaders in the East were trying to defend their own ideological status quo, by, among other things, battling against so-called Western centres of ideological subversion. As it emerges from preserved documents of Department I of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the People’s Republic of Poland, the Centre for the Study of Religion and Communism, founded in 1969 in Great Britain, later to be colloquially known as Keston College2 was regarded as such a centre. This paper aims to present the activities of Keston College and verify its classification by Polish communist intelligence as a Western centre of ideological subversion. Looking for an answer to the question: ‘why was Keston College treated by officers of the Polish communist intelligence as a centre of ideological subversion?’ I will use the analysis of archival sources and references to the opinions of Keston College researchers and historical literature. In the article, I refer mainly to the archival materials of the Ministry of the Interior of the People’s Republic of Poland. However, it should be borne in mind, that intelligence officers from countries remaining in the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union also spoke in a similar tone about the activities of Keston College. I will carry out comparative research in this area in the forthcoming publication Keston College and the Polish Affairs.

When tropical and subtropical congeners met: Multiple ancient hybridization events within Eriobotrya in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, a tropical-subtropical transition area in China.

Global climate changes during the Miocene may have created ample opportunities for hybridization between members of tropical and subtropical biomes at the boundary between these zones. Yet, very few studies have explored this possibility. The Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau (YGP) in Southwest China is a biodiversity hotspot for vascular plants, located in a transitional area between the floristic regions of tropical Southeast Asia and subtropical East Asia. The genus Eriobotrya (Rosaceae) comprises both tropical and subtropical taxa, with 12 species recorded in the YGP, making it a suitable basis for testing the hypothesis of between-biome hybridization. Therefore, we surveyed the evolutionary history of Eriobotrya by examining three chloroplast regions and five nuclear genes for 817 individuals (47 populations) of 23 Eriobotrya species (including 19 populations of 12 species in the YGP), plus genome re-sequencing of 33 representative samples. We concluded that: (1) phylogenetic positions for 16 species exhibited strong cytonuclear conflicts, most probably due to ancient hybridization; (2) the YGP is a hotspot for hybridization, with 11 species showing clear evidence of chloroplast capture; and (3) Eriobotrya probably originated in tropical Asia during the Eocene. From the Miocene onwards, the intensification of the Eastern Asia monsoon and global cooling may have shifted the tropical-subtropical boundary and caused secondary contact between species, thus providing ample opportunity for hybridization and diversification of Eriobotrya, especially in the YGP. Our study highlights the significant role that paleoclimate changes probably played in driving hybridization and generating rich species diversity in climate transition zones.

Management practices to minimize land use conflicts on large infrastructure projects: examples of dams construction in Pakistan

In this research two cases of infrastructure development (Chotiari and Diamer Bhasha Dams) from Pakistan were studied in terms of a superposition of land uses and their consequences. For this purpose, we obtained qualitative information from both primary as well as secondary sources. Primary data were collected through a partially developed questionnaire from pre-selected experts of various professional backgrounds. National and regional dailies along with other published literature were used as a secondary source of information. The findings have identified the key groups of stakeholders and their relative social power at different levels of governance. The results further highlight that unfair land acquisition, improper displacement, mismanagement in compensation, etc., have caused negative impacts on local people and the surrounded environment. The article further emphasizes governance issues and conflicts among different actors due to the project. Finally, we recommend several actions to prevent strong opposition and conflicts in the infrastructural project in developing countries, like the enhancement of the capacities and the capabilities of the local population, the diffusion of information and the involvement of stakeholders, and the application of technical tools and devices.

Reinforcement learning of irrelevant stimulus-response associations modulates cognitive control.

It has been demonstrated that the Simon effect may be increased or reversed due to proportion congruency manipulation, suggesting that learned spatial irrelevant stimulus-response (S-R) associations are used to guide responses. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that learning spatial irrelevant S-R associations by rewards may show a similar modulatory effect on the Simon effect. In two experiments with the Simon task, we manipulated the contingency of stimulus-response-reward between groups. Experiment 1 showed that the Simon effect in both reaction times and error rates increased if potential performance-contingent rewards always followed congruent trials but decreased and was even reversed if rewards always followed incongruent trials. These suggest that participants used reward-strengthened spatially compatible and incompatible irrelevant S-R associations respectively to predict responses. Experiment 2 showed that the data pattern of the increase and reversal of the Simon effect showed in both rewarded and nonrewarded colors, suggesting that reward-strengthened spatial irrelevant S-R associations were used to guide responses even when there were no potential rewards. Together, these results resemble the proportion congruency effect with the Simon task, suggesting that there could be stronger conflict and attentional control when the correct response is different from the response activated by reward-strengthened irrelevant S-R associations. This suggests that reinforcement learning of irrelevant S-R associations can modulate cognitive control. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Land Use Multi-Suitability, Land Resource Scarcity and Diversity of Human Needs: A New Framework for Land Use Conflict Identification

Land use conflicts are intensifying due to the rapid urbanization and accelerated transformation of social and economic development. Accurate identification of land use conflicts is an important prerequisite for resolving land use conflicts and optimizing the spatial pattern of land use. Previous studies on land use conflict using multi-objective evaluation methods mainly focused on the suitability or competitiveness of land use, ignoring land resource scarcity and the diversity of human needs, hence reducing the accuracy of land use conflict identification. This paper proposes a new framework for land use conflict identification. Considering land use multi-suitability, land resource scarcity and the diversity of human needs, the corresponding evaluation index system was constructed, respectively, and the linear weighted sum model was used to calculate the land use conflict index. Taking Jinan as the study area, the spatial distribution characteristics of land use conflicts are accurately identified and analyzed. The results show that: (1) Land use multi-suitability in Shanghe county and Jiyang district is high, but the intensity of land use conflict is not. This indicates that land use multi-suitability is the premise and basis of land use conflict, but it is not the only determinant, which is consistent with our hypothesis. (2) Land use conflicts in Jinan were dominant by medium conflict, accounting for 43.89% of the conflicts, while strong and weak land use conflicts accounted for 25.21% and 30.90% of the conflicts, respectively. The spatial distribution of land use conflicts is obviously different, with high conflicts in the north and low conflicts in the south. Strong land use conflicts are concentrated in the urban and rural transition zones of Tianqiao, Huaiyin and Shizhong districts and in the northern parts of Licheng and Zhangqiu districts. (3) Inefficient land use and land resource waste aggravated regional land use conflicts in Licheng and Zhangqiu districts. (4) The new framework for land use conflict identification proposed in this study can accurately identify land use conflicts, providing a scientific reference and new ideas for accurate identification of land use conflicts.

Emotional intelligence (EI) research in the construction industry: a review and future directions

PurposeAs a crucial soft skill for achieving project success, emotional intelligence (EI) remains an interesting, relevant and emerging research area which requires more researches in the construction industry. This study presents a review of existing studies on EI in the construction industry.Design/methodology/approachA search of literature was conducted in the Scopus academic database leading to a retrieval of 146 articles. All the articles were subjected to content analysis where 48 articles were accepted to address the research objectives.FindingsThe outcome revealed the topmost critical competencies in EI for construction professionals include: strong assertiveness with firmness in decision-making, strong leadership abilities, coherent team-building traits, strong conflict resolution and high self-control amid provocation. Further, the key contributions of EI to the construction industry were discovered as: increased personal and project performance, inspired leadership, built capacity against stress, improved communication skills and increased confidence within project practitioners.Practical implicationsThe study contributes to the stimulation of an in-depth knowledge in managing construction professionals, the society and further studies in this research area.Originality/valueCritical EI competencies of the key stakeholders of the construction projects are provided to guide practice to improve project successes.

Spatial-temporal pattern of land use conflict in China and its multilevel driving mechanisms

Land use conflict describes the incoordination of land use structure when meeting the diverse human demands under the deterioration of natural environment, which is a sensitive indicator of human-environmental interaction. The increased demand for different land use types due to rapid population growth and urbanization in China places tremendous pressure on limited land resources, which raises great concerns about land use conflict. To solve them, nation-scale assessment is essential, but such kind of research is still lacking due to the high data requirements. Here we drew on the conceptual framework of ecological risk assessment and the theories in landscape ecology, and developed a methodology to derive the spatio-temporal patterns of land use conflict in China from 2001 to 2017. We then used multilevel regression model to identify the driving factors of land use conflict at different levels. The results showed that the areas with strong land use conflict had a higher frequency of land use change, indicating that our model based on the framework of ecological risk assessment could effectively measure land use conflict. Land use conflict showed significant differences between two sides of the Hu Huanyong line, an important division line of population density and socio-economic background. The Main types of land use conflict in China included the strong competition between the use of cultivated land and grassland, the rapid expansion of construction land and the high risk of desertification. Among the driving forces, population density had a positive impact on land use conflict at the upper level, and altitude had a negative impact at the bottom level. Our research provides essential information to solve land use conflict through scientific land use planning and management and further to achieve the sustainable use of land resources.

Unsupervised Change Detection Using Fuzzy Topology-Based Majority Voting

Remote sensing change detection (CD) plays an important role in Earth observation. In this paper, we propose a novel fusion approach for unsupervised CD of multispectral remote sensing images, by introducing majority voting (MV) into fuzzy topological space (FTMV). The proposed FTMV approach consists of three principal stages: (1) the CD results of different difference images produced by the fuzzy C-means algorithm are combined using a modified MV, and an initial fusion CD map is obtained; (2) by using fuzzy topology theory, the initial fusion CD map is automatically partitioned into two parts: a weakly conflicting part and strongly conflicting part; (3) the weakly conflicting pixels that possess little or no conflict are assigned to the current class, while the pixel patterns with strong conflicts often misclassified are relabeled using the supported connectivity of fuzzy topology. FTMV can integrate the merits of different CD results and largely solve the conflicting problem during fusion. Experimental results on three real remote sensing images confirm the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method.

Can convincing strategies transcend conflicts? A study of competing institutional logics

We extend theories of competing institutional logics to include convincing as a new conflict management strategy in hybrid organisations. Relying on longitudinal data of a hybrid organisation of the sharing economy, we find that decoupling, compromising, and combining, while explicitly or implicitly accepting the underlying disagreement, all aggravate most conflict intensities – weak, medium, and strong – while compromising and combining only temporally reconcile strong and weak conflicts, respectively. Convincing strategies, in contrast, view the goals and practices of competing logics as interdependent and deliberately use these interdependencies to transcend – i.e., to go beyond the perceived limits of – a given conflict. We find four mechanisms that facilitate transcend-ing, including (i) developing novel persuasive arguments as to why given practices can promote another logic’s goal, (ii) suggesting a new distinction previously unappreciated that separates controversial from uncontroversial practices, (iii) proposing a novel overarching goal agreeable to a competing logic and (iv) providing an “enabling environment” for open discussions about goal-practice interdependencies. We posit that these mechanisms provide opportunities for competing logics to overcome conflicts and, thus, can make hybrid organisations more enduring, innovative, and sustainable.

Evaluating the Social Cost of Conflict between New Media and Society: The Case of Gaming Disorder in South Korea

Historically, the introduction of a new media in mass market caused a strong conflict starting from the nineteenth century popular literature, comics, rock music and film. Interestingly, these conflicts have shown similar and repeated patterns, which is now called media panic and moral regulation, and games are following this pattern. In 2019, Gaming disorder (GD) was decided to be included in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), and similar conflicts on games arenow expected. However, the social cost and damage have not been fully addressed until now. Thus, this study focuses on the estimation of the social cost induced by GD for policy design and decisions in the public healthcare of South Korea. Using the contingent valuation method, a popular valuation method in econometrics for non-market goods, this study has tried to estimate the social cost induced by the introduction of GD into the public healthcare practice. Focusing on a false positive problem in the diagnosis, this study estimates that the willingness to pay for GD diagnosis for children is about KRW 152 K (USD 135). Considering the difference between the prevalence of GD (1.9%) and GD suspicion rate of children in the respondents (12.54%), the excessive medical diagnosis cost due to the false positive problem is estimated to KRW 101 billion (USD 89.6 M), which is about four times more than the annual medical cost for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) treatment in South Korea. Thus, strong scientific proof and a cautious policy approach on GD are needed before the inclusion of GD in the public health practice.

Reasoning supports forgiving accidental harms

People experience a strong conflict while evaluating actors who unintentionally harmed someone—her innocent intention exonerating her, while the harmful outcome incriminating her. Different people solve this conflict differently, suggesting the presence of dispositional moderators of the way the conflict is processed. In the present research, we explore how reasoning ability and cognitive style relate to how people choose to resolve this conflict and judge accidental harms. We conducted three studies in which we utilized varied reasoning measures and populations. The results showed that individual differences in reasoning ability and cognitive style predicted severity of judgments in fictitious accidental harms scenarios, with better reasoners being less harsh in their judgments. Internal meta-analysis confirmed that this effect was robust only for accidental harms. We discuss the importance of individual differences in reasoning ability in the assessment of accidental harms.

Preventing and Neutralizing the Escalation of Workplace Bullying: the Role of Conflict Management Climate

Workplace bullying is, by definition, a gradually escalating process, theorized to occur from psychosocial stressors when there is a lack of management intervention in escalating conflicts, and a lack of fair and robust conflict management procedures in the organization. Based on national probability survey data gathered in 2015–2016 from the official Norwegian employee-register, we investigated how a strong perceived climate for conflict management may buffer the escalation of workplace bullying over time. A total of 1197 respondents participated in the study at two measuring points. The average age at baseline was 45.20 years (SD = 9.98), and the sample consisted of 52.1% women and 47.9% men. Structural equation modelling in Mplus 7.4 was used to test the construct validity and the study’s hypothesis. As expected, the analyses showed that a strong conflict management climate buffered the escalation of workplace bullying. Exposure to bullying behaviour at T1 largely explained (47%) new and increased instances of bullying behaviour at T2, but only for those employees working in what they perceived as a weak conflict management climate. We conclude that a strong conflict management climate neutralizes the escalation and development of workplace bullying.