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It was predicted that the amount of satisfaction following an interpersonal exchange will be higher when the resource given is similar to the one reciprocated, and lower when they are dissimilar. Interpersonal exchange situations were experimentally created in which two independent
variables—the resource given by the subject and the resource received by him—were manipulated. Each subject was induced to give a confederate, upon the latter's bidding, a given one of the following six resources: love, status, information, money, goods, and services. The
confederate then reciprocated with one of two predetermined resources—money or love. The hypothesis was supported when money was the resource of reciprocation. For love reciprocation internal analysis and an additional experiment indicated that the lower-than-expected satisfaction was
affected by devaluation effect and the short time allowed for the exchange. Application of the findings is discussed.

The social institutions of modern technological culture often fail to provide adequate opportunity for the exchange of emotions and personal feelings of affect and esteem. The widespread development of alternative institutions such as sensitivity training can be seen as an attempt to compensate for the scarcity of this type of interpersonal communication. Reasons for this scarcity are examined in terms of a structural model of individual and societal resource differentiation.