The Price of Friendship: When, Why, and How Relational Norms Guide Social Exchange Behavior

This article critically examines McGraw and Tetlock's (2005) notion of relational framing and offers directions for future development of the conceptual model. I begin by discussing the inherent limitations of scenario studies and show how the emergence of attribution analysis in real interpersonal interactions may qualify the results obtained in these studies. I then discuss the norm consistency and social identity maintenance mechanisms proposed in the article and advance several alternative mediators of the phenomenon, including affect and anticipated interaction. I recommend experimental designs that could be used to isolate the role of the different mediators and suggest the incorporation of process measures. I end with a discussion of conditions under which relational framing may not matter and propose a research agenda for consumer researchers interested in building on the solid foundation laid by McGraw and Tetlock.