Social Exchange: Predicting Transactional Outcomes in Five-Event, Four-Person Systems

This paper reports an experimental test of Coleman's theory of social exchange. The theory utilizes information on interest (X) and initial control (C) to make predictions concerning the value of events (V), the resources of persons (R), and the pattern of control at equilibrium (C*). The experimental paradigm, which incorporates three distinct five-event, four-person exchange systems, shows that the theory's predictions are highly accurate for V, R and C*. Competitive goodness-of-fit tests demonstrate that Coleman's theory surpasses alternative theories based on less input information. The findings substantiate previous tests of Coleman's theory conducted on smaller exchange systems. In an earlier paper, Michener, Cohen and Sorensen (1975) reported the first experimental test of Coleman's (1972) theory of social exchange. That test, while