  This article identifies how scarcity, abundance, and sufficiency influence
exchange behavior. Analyzing the mechanisms governing exchange of resources
constitutes the foundation of several social-science perspectives. Neoclassical
economics provides one of the most well-known perspectives of how rational
individuals allocate and exchange resources. Using Rational Choice Theory
(RCT), neoclassical economics assumes that exchange between two individuals
will occur when resources are scarce and that these individuals interact
rationally to satisfy their requirements (i.e., preferences). While RCT is
useful to characterize interaction in closed and stylized systems, it proves
insufficient to capture social and psychological reality where culture,
emotions, and habits play an integral part in resource exchange. Social
Resource Theory (SRT) improves on RCT in several respects by making the social
nature of resources the object of study. SRT shows how human interaction is
driven by an array of psychological mechanisms, from emotions to heuristics.
Thus, SRT provides a more realistic foundation for analyzing and explaining
social exchange than the stylized instrumental rationality of RCT. Yet SRT has
no clear place for events of abundance and sufficiency as additional
motivations to exchange resources. This article synthesize and formalize a
foundation for SRT using not only scarcity but also abundance and sufficiency.
