Monetary Cues Alter Interpersonal Harmony Because They Activate an Exchange-Orientation

Consumers coordinate their interactions with others – be it salesclerks, supervisors, or spouses – by drawing from a small set of psychological scripts that serve to guide social interactions (e.g., Clark and Mills 1979; Fiske 1991). Throughout human history, communal relationships were the basis of social life (e.g., Fiske 1991). However, the introduction of money ushered in a new relational style that is characterized by a desire to track and optimize the ratio between costs and benefits. This relational style is called market pricing mode (Fiske 1991) or exchange orientation (Clark and Mills 1979) and it may be unique to humans. Theoretically, communal and exchange orientations are diametrically opposed to one another (Fiske 1991), which led us to hypothesize that the previously unexplained link between money and hampered social harmony could be explained by exchange orientation. We tested this hypothesis in three experiments by varying whether participants were exposed to the concept of money; subsequent changes in relational-style and interpersonal harmony were measured.