Extending Social Resource Exchange to Events of Abundance and Sufficiency

Jonas B{\aa}{\aa}th and Adel Daoud

Papers from arXiv.org

Abstract: This article identifies how scarcity, abundance, and sufficiency influence exchange behavior. Analyzing the mechanisms governing exchange of resources constitutes the foundation of several social-science perspectives. Neoclassical economics provides one of the most well-known perspectives of how rational individuals allocate and exchange resources. Using Rational Choice Theory (RCT), neoclassical economics assumes that exchange between two individuals will occur when resources are scarce and that these individuals interact rationally to satisfy their requirements (i.e., preferences). While RCT is useful to characterize interaction in closed and stylized systems, it proves insufficient to capture social and psychological reality where culture, emotions, and habits play an integral part in resource exchange. Social Resource Theory (SRT) improves on RCT in several respects by making the social nature of resources the object of study. SRT shows how human interaction is driven by an array of psychological mechanisms, from emotions to heuristics. Thus, SRT provides a more realistic foundation for analyzing and explaining social exchange than the stylized instrumental rationality of RCT. Yet SRT has no clear place for events of abundance and sufficiency as additional motivations to exchange resources. This article synthesize and formalize a foundation for SRT using not only scarcity but also abundance and sufficiency.

Date: 2020-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe
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