Chapter 26 Exercises: Class, Status, and Mate Value

Exercise 1: Social Exchange Theory Audit (Individual Reflection)

Read the following passage, then respond to the questions below.

"Social exchange theory proposes that people enter and maintain relationships based on a calculation of costs and benefits. Equity theory adds that satisfaction is highest when both partners receive benefits proportional to what they contribute."

Questions: 1. Make a list of five things you believe you "bring" to a romantic relationship. Now try to assign each a relative value compared to the others. What difficulties did you encounter in this exercise? What does the difficulty reveal about the limits of exchange frameworks? 2. Think of a real or fictional relationship you know well. How would social exchange theory analyze it? What does that analysis capture accurately? What does it miss? 3. Do you find the market metaphor for relationships offensive, useful, both, or neither? Explain your reasoning with reference to at least one specific concept from the chapter.

Target length: 400–500 words total across all three responses.

Exercise 2: Educational Homogamy — Class Reproduction or Compatibility? (Debate Preparation)

Review the chapter's discussion of educational homogamy and Robert Putnam's analysis in Our Kids.

Your task: Prepare a 250-word argument for ONE of the following positions (your instructor will assign or you may choose):

Position A: Educational homogamy is primarily a matter of genuine compatibility — shared cultural experiences, similar life trajectories, and common values that happen to correlate with educational attainment. Its effects on inequality are real but incidental.

Position B: Educational homogamy is primarily a class-reproduction mechanism — a way that economic privilege perpetuates itself across generations through the coupling of educated high-earners, regardless of whether educational similarity actually predicts relationship quality.

After writing your argument, write a 100-word response to the opposing position, engaging with its strongest claim.

Exercise 3: Platform Audit (Applied Research)

Choose a dating app you have access to (or research one you don't use — app store screenshots, reviews, and published descriptions are sufficient). Analyze it using the following framework:

  1. Subscription pricing: What do free versus paid tiers include? What features are paywalled? Estimate the monthly cost for full access.
  2. Algorithmic class signals: What profile elements does the app make visible to potential matches? Which of these function as class signals (occupation, education, neighborhood, photos that suggest economic position)?
  3. Who is not served: Think about who might be disadvantaged by the app's design — whose class position makes it harder to use effectively, whose kinds of value are not well captured by the profile format.

Write a 350–400 word analysis synthesizing your findings. Conclude with one specific design change that would reduce class stratification in the app's matching system.

Exercise 4: Intersectionality Case Study (Short Essay)

The chapter argues that race and class cannot be disaggregated cleanly in discussions of mate value in the United States. Sam Nakamura-Bright's experience is offered as one illustration.

Write a 300–400 word analysis of how race and class intersect in ONE of the following scenarios:

a. A Black woman with a graduate degree who is urban and professional — how might the "mate value" framing both describe and distort her dating market position?

b. A white man from a working-class background who has achieved upward mobility — how might his class history be invisible in ways that a similarly mobile person of color's would not be?

c. A Latina immigrant woman navigating dating in a context where her cultural capital, English proficiency, and legal status are all simultaneously legible and misread.

Your analysis should use the concept of intersectionality explicitly and should acknowledge the limits of your own perspective.

Exercise 5: Class Performance Interview (Fieldwork Option)

Note: This exercise requires informed consent and should only be conducted with willing participants. Do not share identifying information in your written analysis.

Interview one person about their experience with class in a dating or romantic context. This could be a friend, family member, or fellow student. Ask:

  • Have you ever felt you needed to manage how your class background comes across in dating contexts? If so, how?
  • Have you ever experienced (or witnessed) class friction in a relationship — different assumptions about money, family obligation, leisure, the future?
  • Do you think class "matters" in who you're attracted to? How do you think about that?

Write a 400–500 word reflective analysis of what you heard, connecting at least two concepts from the chapter to your interviewee's experience. Maintain your interviewee's confidentiality throughout.