Social Exchange Theory under Scrutiny: A Positive Critique of its Economic-Behaviorist Formulations

Exchange theory has become one of the most ambitious social, especially sociopsychological, theories. Social exchange theory’s fundamental premise is that human behavior is an exchange of rewards between actors. This is the rationale for the claim that social exchange can serve as a general paradigm for sociology and anthropology as well as social psychology. The present critique is aimed at rational choice and behaviorist variants of social exchange theory rather than at the theory as such. First, the main assumptions of (these variants of) social exchange theory are presented. This is followed by a critique of these assumptions at two levels. The first level pertains to the treatment of social interaction as an exchange, and the second to the status of social exchange as an economic or psychological phenomenon. Other criticisms of exchange theory are also presented. The exchange approach in sociology [is] the economic analysis of noneconomic social situations (Emerson, 1976, p. 336). In recent years, one of the most ambitious sociological, particularly sociopsychological, theories has been social exchange theory (Alexander, 1990; Cook, 2000), in turn a subset of the rational choice model predicated on a “paradigm of rational action borrowed from economics” (Coleman, 1986, p. 10), viz. expected utility models imported from microeconomics (Macy and Flache, 1995). Notably, some of its proponents see social exchange theory as a prominent instance of “sociological miniaturism” (or sociological social psychology1) that ostensibly allows the “examination of large-scale social issues by means of the investigation of small-scale social situations”, or simply “seeing the big through the small” (Stolte, Fine, and Cook, 2001, p. 388). The question can arise as to the reasons readers need to know about social exchange theory. An important reason is exchange theory’s ambition to be a sort of integrative theoretical paradigm for social science, social psychology in particular, which derives from the corresponding claim of the rational choice model and behaviorism, as its key bases and sources. Another reason is exchange theory’s self-description as an interdisciplinary theoretical endeavor putatively spanning social-science disciplinary boundaries, especially those between sociology, economics, psychology and political science. So is the moment that exchange theory, especially its economic variant, is intimately linked with “public choice” or “rational choice” approaches, which are more familiar to social and political theorists. A corollary reason is then that exchange theory involves or revolves around the issue of how standard economic frameworks, notably market metaphors and analogies, are applied to social analysis in recent times. This paper scrutinizes these approaches and claims of exchange theory. The examination is organized in three parts. The first part contains the key concepts and assumptions of social exchange theory as presented by its representatives. The second part involves a critique of social exchange theory at two levels, viz. the treatment of social interaction as exchange, and then of social exchange as an extension of economic and/or behavioral (psychological) phenomena. Adduced in the third part are some other criticisms of exchange theory. A key criticism is that modern exchange theory is neither a completely original nor satisfactory paradigm for social science in virtue of being a mixture of elements from psychological behaviorism and orthodox economics as more or less discredited theoretical traditions, as well as (unwittingly) restating and misinterpreting some classical sociological and anthropological ideas (e.g. Simmel, Mauss). On the account of that mixture, the theory appears as an attempt to resurrect the double ‘ghost’ of behaviorism and utilitarianism, in respect of this restatement, a sort of déjà vu expedition to ‘rediscover America.’ I. Concepts and Assumptions of Social Exchange Theory Human Behavior/Social Interaction as Exchange Exchange theory is based on the premise that human behavior or social interaction is an exchange of activity, tangible and intangible (Homans, 1961, p.