First proposed in Fiske's doctoral dissertation in 1985, relational models theory proposes four relational models which are each argued to be innate, intrinsically motivated, and culturally universal (though with culture-specific implementations) ways of cooperating and coordinating social interactions.
The four elementary relationships can be combined to form more complex configurations of relationships called meta-relational models. Meta-relational models typically take the form of entailments or prohibitions, which imply certain obligations, behaviors or relationships between multiple dyads within a particular configuration (e.g., within a triad with members A, B and C, A being in a CS relationship with B prohibits B from being in a CS relationship with A's enemy, C). Examples of meta-relational models include the compadrazgo relationship, describing the entailment of relationships between the parents and godparents of a child, and the incest taboo, describing the prohibition of relationships among certain members of the same family.
According to RMT, mis-matching of relational models is a common cause of interpersonal conflict, given that different relational models will often imply different behaviors in the same situation. Taking two housemates sharing dishwashing as a simple example, Fiske suggests that if housemate A assumes dishwashing is governed by a CS framework and housemate B assumes an EM framework, A will expect both of them to wash dishes whenever they can, and B will expect them to take turns. If A is busy and B is not, A will expect B to wash the dishes, but if B washed the dishes last, they'll assume it's A's turn, and conflict will ensue because of A and B's mis-matched relational models.
Fiske proposed that the four discrete types of relationships correspond to Stevens's four levels of measurement. CS relationships resemble the categorical (nominal) scales of measurement in that all members of the relationship are equivalent. AR resembles an ordinal scale given that members of the relationship are placed in a linear ordering. EM relationships resemble interval measurement given that they are kept in balance by addition and subtraction. Finally, MP relationships resemble a ratio scale (whose origin corresponds, for example, to a price of zero) given that they involve proportions, multiplication and division and the distributive law.
The two main, original publications on relational models theory have received over 5000 citations combined.
Fiske, Alan Page (June 1990). "Relativity within Moose ("Mossi") Culture: Four Incommensurable Models for Social Relationships". Ethos. 18 (2): 180–204. doi:10.1525/eth.1990.18.2.02a00040. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Fiske, Alan P. (1992). "The four elementary forms of sociality: Framework for a unified theory of social relations". Psychological Review. 99 (4): 689–723. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.99.4.689. PMID 1454904. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Fiske, Alan Page (1991). Structures of social life: The four elementary forms of human relations: Communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching, market pricing. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0029103452. 0029103452
Fiske, Alan Page (2007). "Relational Models Theory". In Baumeister, Roy F; Vohs, Kathleen D (eds.). Encyclopedia of Social Psychology. SAGE Publications, Inc. pp. 743–745. doi:10.4135/9781412956253.n445. ISBN 9781412956253. 9781412956253
Haslam, Nicholas, ed. (2004). Relational models theory : a contemporary overview. Lawrence Erlbaum. ISBN 0805853561. 0805853561
Fiske, Alan Page (1985). Making Up Society: Four Models for Constructing Social Relations Among the Moose of Burkina Faso. Doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, Department of Behavioral Sciences.
Fiske, Alan Page (2007). "Relational Models Theory". In Baumeister, Roy F; Vohs, Kathleen D (eds.). Encyclopedia of Social Psychology. SAGE Publications, Inc. pp. 743–745. doi:10.4135/9781412956253.n445. ISBN 9781412956253. 9781412956253
Fiske, Alan P. (1992). "The four elementary forms of sociality: Framework for a unified theory of social relations". Psychological Review. 99 (4): 689–723. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.99.4.689. PMID 1454904. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Fiske, Alan Page (2007). "Relational Models Theory". In Baumeister, Roy F; Vohs, Kathleen D (eds.). Encyclopedia of Social Psychology. SAGE Publications, Inc. pp. 743–745. doi:10.4135/9781412956253.n445. ISBN 9781412956253. 9781412956253
Miller, Lisa; Rozin, Paul; Fiske, Alan Page (May 1998). "Food sharing and feeding another person suggest intimacy; two studies of American college students". European Journal of Social Psychology. 28 (3): 423–436. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-0992(199805/06)28:3<423::AID-EJSP874>3.0.CO;2-V. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Fiske, Alan P. (1992). "The four elementary forms of sociality: Framework for a unified theory of social relations". Psychological Review. 99 (4): 689–723. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.99.4.689. PMID 1454904. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Fiske, Alan P. (1992). "The four elementary forms of sociality: Framework for a unified theory of social relations". Psychological Review. 99 (4): 689–723. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.99.4.689. PMID 1454904. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Fiske, Alan P. (1992). "The four elementary forms of sociality: Framework for a unified theory of social relations". Psychological Review. 99 (4): 689–723. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.99.4.689. PMID 1454904. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Fiske, Alan Page (February 2012). "Metarelational models: Configurations of social relationships". European Journal of Social Psychology. 42 (1): 2–18. doi:10.1002/ejsp.847. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Fiske, Alan Page (February 2012). "Metarelational models: Configurations of social relationships". European Journal of Social Psychology. 42 (1): 2–18. doi:10.1002/ejsp.847. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Fiske, Alan Page (2007). "Relational Models Theory". In Baumeister, Roy F; Vohs, Kathleen D (eds.). Encyclopedia of Social Psychology. SAGE Publications, Inc. pp. 743–745. doi:10.4135/9781412956253.n445. ISBN 9781412956253. 9781412956253
Fiske, Alan P. (1992). "The four elementary forms of sociality: Framework for a unified theory of social relations". Psychological Review. 99 (4): 689–723. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.99.4.689. PMID 1454904. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Fiske, Alan P. (1992). "The four elementary forms of sociality: Framework for a unified theory of social relations". Psychological Review. 99 (4): 689–723. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.99.4.689. PMID 1454904. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Fiske, Alan Page (1991). Structures of social life: The four elementary forms of human relations: Communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching, market pricing. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0029103452. 0029103452
Rai, Tage Shakti; Fiske, Alan Page (2011). "Moral psychology is relationship regulation: Moral motives for unity, hierarchy, equality, and proportionality". Psychological Review. 118 (1): 57–75. doi:10.1037/a0021867. PMID 21244187. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Simpson, Ain; Laham, Simon M.; Fiske, Alan Page (11 January 2016). "Wrongness in different relationships: Relational context effects on moral judgment". The Journal of Social Psychology. 156 (6): 594–609. doi:10.1080/00224545.2016.1140118. PMID 26751010. S2CID 21604117. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1b36f8vw
Sunar, Diane; Cesur, Sevim; Piyale, Zeynep Ecem; Tepe, Beyza; Biten, Ali Furkan; Hill, Charles T.; Koç, Yasin (19 March 2020). "People respond with different moral emotions to violations in different relational models: A cross-cultural comparison". Emotion. 21 (4): 693–706. doi:10.1037/emo0000736. PMID 32191085. S2CID 214583668. https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/936413a4-c7f9-40fe-9b07-9fbcfdb76c8d
Fiske, Alan Page; Rai, Tage Shakti (2014). Virtuous Violence: Hurting and Killing to Create, Sustain, End, and Honor Social Relationships. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781316104668. 9781316104668
Slovic, Paul; Mertz, C. K.; Markowitz, David M.; Quist, Andrew; Västfjäll, Daniel (25 August 2020). "Virtuous violence from the war room to death row". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 117 (34): 20474–20482. doi:10.1073/pnas.2001583117. PMC 7456115. PMID 32778580. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7456115
Haidt, Jonathan; Joseph, Craig (September 2004). "Intuitive ethics: how innately prepared intuitions generate culturally variable virtues". Daedalus. 133 (4): 55–66. doi:10.1162/0011526042365555. S2CID 1574243. https://doi.org/10.1162%2F0011526042365555
Fiske, Alan Page (April 2002). "Socio-Moral Emotions Motivate Action to Sustain Relationships". Self and Identity. 1 (2): 169–175. doi:10.1080/152988602317319357. S2CID 145361814. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Giessner, Steffen; van Quaquebeke, Niels (September 2010). "Using a Relational Models Perspective to Understand Normatively Appropriate Conduct in Ethical Leadership" (PDF). Journal of Business Ethics. 95 (S1): 43–55. doi:10.1007/s10551-011-0790-4. hdl:1765/22721. S2CID 55954959. https://repub.eur.nl/pub/22721/ERS-2011-002-ORG.pdf
Sheppard, Blair H.; Sherman, Dana M. (July 1998). "The Grammars of Trust: A Model and General Implications". Academy of Management Review. 23 (3): 422–437. doi:10.5465/amr.1998.926619. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Pinker, S.; Nowak, M. A.; Lee, J. J. (16 January 2008). "The logic of indirect speech". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105 (3): 833–838. Bibcode:2008PNAS..105..833P. doi:10.1073/pnas.0707192105. PMC 2242675. PMID 18199841. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2242675
Lickel, Brian; Hamilton, David L.; Sherman, Steven J. (2001). "Elements of a Lay Theory of Groups: Types of Groups, Relational Styles, and the Perception of Group Entitativity". Personality and Social Psychology Review. 5 (2): 129–140. doi:10.1207/S15327957PSPR0502_4. S2CID 3899125. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Lickel, Brian; Rutchick, Abraham M.; Hamilton, David L.; Sherman, Steven J. (January 2006). "Intuitive theories of group types and relational principles". Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 42 (1): 28–39. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2005.01.007. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Zickfeld, Janis H.; Schubert, Thomas W.; Seibt, Beate; Blomster, Johanna K.; Arriaga, Patrícia; Basabe, Nekane; Blaut, Agata; Caballero, Amparo; Carrera, Pilar; Dalgar, Ilker; Ding, Yi; Dumont, Kitty; Gaulhofer, Valerie; Gračanin, Asmir; Gyenis, Réka; Hu, Chuan-Peng; Kardum, Igor; Lazarević, Ljiljana B.; Mathew, Leemamol; Mentser, Sari; Nussinson, Ravit; Onuki, Mayuko; Páez, Darío; Pásztor, Anna; Peng, Kaiping; Petrović, Boban; Pizarro, José J.; Schönefeld, Victoria; Śmieja, Magdalena; Tokaji, Akihiko; Vingerhoets, Ad; Vorster, Anja; Vuoskoski, Jonna; Zhu, Lei; Fiske, Alan Page (April 2019). "Kama muta: Conceptualizing and measuring the experience often labelled being moved across 19 nations and 15 languages". Emotion. 19 (3): 402–424. doi:10.1037/emo0000450. hdl:10071/16718. PMID 29888936. S2CID 47006273. /wiki/Doi_(identifier)
Seibt, Beate; Schubert, Thomas W.; Zickfeld, Janis H.; Zhu, Lei; Arriaga, Patrícia; Simão, Cláudia; Nussinson, Ravit; Fiske, Alan Page (20 December 2017). "Kama Muta: Similar Emotional Responses to Touching Videos Across the United States, Norway, China, Israel, and Portugal". Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. 49 (3): 418–435. doi:10.1177/0022022117746240. S2CID 53447142. http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/4zv550pt
Zickfeld, Janis H.; Schubert, Thomas W.; Seibt, Beate; Fiske, Alan P. (15 February 2019). "Moving Through the Literature: What Is the Emotion Often Denoted". Emotion Review. 11 (2): 123–139. doi:10.1177/1754073918820126. hdl:10852/71491. S2CID 149917953. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4mq5589p
Zickfeld, Janis H.; Schubert, Thomas W.; Seibt, Beate; Fiske, Alan P. (10 May 2017). "Empathic Concern Is Part of a More General Communal Emotion". Frontiers in Psychology. 8: 723. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00723. PMC 5423947. PMID 28539901. S2CID 5529639. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5423947