Jessica L. Collett

Fragile and Resilient Trust: Risk and Uncertainty in Negotiated and Reciprocal Exchange*

Both experimental and ethnographic studies show that reciprocal exchanges (in which actors unilaterally provide benefits to each other without formal agreements) produce stronger trust than negotiated exchanges secured by binding agreements. We develop the theoretical role of risk and uncertainty as causal mechanisms that potentially explain these results, and then test their effects in two laboratory experiments that vary risk and uncertainty within negotiated and reciprocal forms of exchange. We increase risk in negotiated exchanges by making agreements nonbinding and decrease uncertainty in reciprocal exchanges by having actors communicate their intentions. Our findings support three main theoretical conclusions. (1) Increasing risk in negotiated exchange produces levels of trust comparable to those in reciprocal exchange only if the partners trustworthiness is near-absolute. (2) Decreasing uncertainty in reciprocal exchange either increases or decreases trust, depending on network structure. (3) Even when reciprocal and negotiated exchanges produce comparable levels of trust, their trust differs in kind, with reciprocal exchange partners developing trust that is more resilient and affect-based.

The role of exchange and emotion on commitment: A study of teachers

Recent experimental work in social exchange offers keen insight into factors that enhance commitment to individuals, groups, and relationships. In this article we explore the relevance of this work to school settings. Specifically, we use structural equation modeling and data from the 2004 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) to test whether the commitment-enhancing processes laid out in Lawlers affect theory of social exchange might reduce teacher turnover, an issue plaguing school districts across the country. Our results support such a model and demonstrate the importance of interdependence for fostering commitment among teachers, with interaction, affect, and cohesion as intervening factors.

Localizing Cultural Phenomena by Specifying Social Psychological Mechanisms: Introduction to the Special Issue

Many of the SPQ editorial board members in attendance at our annual breakfast meeting at the 2012 ASA in Denver sported buttons that read, ‘‘Social Psychology—it’s actually everywhere!’’ Karen Hegtvedt and Cathryn Johnson, the journal’s coeditors, asked the board to ponder how best to move beyond the buttons to use SPQ to share the ubiquity of social psychology with a wider audience. They proposed the idea of a special issue and suggested the possibility of one that focused on the intersection of culture and social psychology. Given the popularity of a series of joint sessions between the two sections at recent meetings, the board viewed the idea as long overdue and enthusiastically supported it. Twenty years ago, both cultural sociologists (e.g., Sewell 1992) and social psychologists (e.g., Ridgeway and SmithLovin 1994) argued that an adequate explanation of a social phenomenon is one that links ‘‘macro’’ cultural structures with the ‘‘micro’’ dynamics of context and interaction. Yet, driven by commitment to distinct methodologies, theoretical paradigms, and overall epistemic traditions, cultural sociology and social psychology, while vibrant in their own rights, have done little to move closer over time. Cultural sociologists have gone on to develop powerful theoretical vocabularies and analytical tools useful for examining the largescale constitution of cultural meaning systems (Mohr and Rawlings 2012). However, it is clear that the elucidation and ‘‘measurement’’ of cultural phenomena without specification of the underlying mechanisms that underpin them is incomplete (Lizardo 2013). Social psychologists have continued to refine carefully assembled bodies of theory and precise investigative techniques to understand the microdynamics of interaction in both controlled and naturalistic contexts. However, these interactional, identity-based, or status-based micromechanisms must be understood as connected to the large-scale cultural patterns that they help to reproduce and generate (Ridgeway 2014). With the endorsement of the board for the special issue, Karen and Cathy recruited us as guest editors and crafted a call for papers that invited both cultural

Using Remember the Titans to Teach Theories of Conflict Reduction

One of the benefits of using films in sociology class is the opportunity media representations give students to ‘‘experience’’ situations that are uncommon in their daily lives. In this note the authors outline research in education that demonstrates the role of imagery and experiential learning in fostering a deeper understanding of material for students. They then focus on the ability of one film (Remember the Titans) to transport students to a place they will never experience—racially charged 1971 Virginia—and to illustrate social psychological processes of conflict reduction (contact, superordinate goals, and shared identities) as well as the link between micro-interaction, social institutions, and larger patterns of social stratification. After elaborating how the authors have used the film in class, they present findings from their students that demonstrate the effectiveness of the film for enhancing student understanding.

Using Identity Processes to Understand Persistent Inequality in Parenting

Despite growing acceptance of a “new fatherhood” urging fathers to be engaged in family life, men’s relative contributions to housework and child care have remained largely stagnant over the past twenty years. Using data from in-depth interviews, we describe how identity processes may contribute to this persistent inequality in parenting. We propose that the specificity of men’s identity standards for the father role is related to role-relevant behavior, and that the vague expectations many associate with “new fatherhood” both contribute to and result from men’s underinvolvement. Consistent with this proposal, we find that while all fathers face difficulty living up to expectations of “new fatherhood,” those with vague identity standards contribute less to carework and are less committed to the father identity, in part because they are less likely to experience self-discrepancy. We outline the implications of our results for future research in identity theory and for understanding inequality in households.

Is procedural justice enough? Affect, attribution, and conflict in alternative dispute resolution

Since its inception in the 1970s, procedural justice has taken center stage in research on the outcomes of alternative dispute resolution. Such perceptions of procedural fairness, while important, are fairly transient whereas relationships between disputants endure. In the following chapter I argue that more research should explore the relational outcomes of dispute resolution, highlighting relevant insight from social exchange and organizational behavior on affect, attribution, and conflict. In discussing how each can add to the study of alternative dispute resolution, a paradox emerges – arbitration may be better for ongoing relationships than mediation, although the latter is considered more procedurally just.

Building a Life Together: Reciprocal and Negotiated Exchange in Fragile Families

An ongoing debate in social exchange theory centers on the benefits and drawbacks of reciprocal versus negotiated exchange for dyadic relationships. Lawlers affect theory of social exchange argues that the interdependent nature of negotiated exchange enhances commitment to exchange relations, whereas Molms reciprocity theory suggests that reciprocal exchange fosters more integrative bonds than the bilateral agreements of negotiation. In this chapter, we use data from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with poor and working-class couples to explore the effects of both types of exchange on relationship satisfaction. Consistent with reciprocity theory, we find that couples who engage in reciprocal exchange are happier and more satisfied with their relationship than those who explicitly negotiate the division of labor in their households and that the expressive value of these exchanges play an important role in this outcome. However, reciprocity is not enough. As predicted by the affect theory, the couples with the best outcomes also perceive supporting a family as a highly interdependent task, regardless of their family structure. Our results point to the complementary nature of these two theories in a natural social setting.

Whom Can We Trust? How Groups, Networks, and Institutions Make Trust Possible

day prophets call for the programmatic scepticism that Merton and Popper teach us. Yet there is no more an important field of inquiry than forecasts of the future in a time of global environmental threats. ‘‘Techniques of prospection’’ certainly deserve urgent attention, in particular because of the role of contingency in the art of politics. Is there something missing in the volume? At least in Sweden, theologians are often represented in STS networking, despite the country being very secularized. The religious dimension could have been better covered. This lacuna is a bit amazing because of ‘‘priest’’ being the second career choice for U.S. sociologists.