Trust and Symbolic Exchange

This paper analyzes some of the ways that actors try to establish their trustworthiness in interaction. It is argued that they do so through a type of social exchange in which the principal importance of the goods exchanged lies not in their utilitarian value to those who receive them but in their significance as gestures that communicate the intentions of the actors making them. This type of social exchange is called symbolic exchange. A vocabulary of symbolic exchange in American society is described, and the influence of various dimensions of social structure on the 'character of symbolic exchange is discussed. Social structural dimensions discussed include status hierarchy vs. status equality, formality vs. informality, and specificity vs. diffuseness. Finally, it is suggested that symbolic exchange acts as a link between communicative behavior and social exchange as such.