How to Sell a Friend: Disinterest as Relational Work in Direct Sales

Abstract

Economic sociologists agree that monetary transactions are not necessarily antithetical to meaningful social relationships. However, they also accept that creating "good matches" between the two requires hard work. In this article, I contribute to the relational program in economic sociology by examining a common but understudied type of work in which one party to a relationship stands to benefit from it financially. I identify in these highly commercialized contexts a particular style of relational work anticipated, but not fully developed, in Pierre Bourdieu's writings: disinterest. I argue that the disinterested style is manifest by economically implicated individuals who downplay their objectively apparent economic interests in order to preserve or encourage good feelings about a relationship that is meaningful to them. Drawing upon data from the direct selling industry, I show how distributors use disinterest to navigate their work.

Honor among Crooks: The Role of Trust in Obfuscated Disreputable Exchange

“…We also see great value in further analysis of actors’ sensemaking and framing of obfuscated exchange, including how the use of narratives (Rosenkranz 2016) and cognitive distancing (Child 2021) may help alleviate moral discomfort. Not only actor- and dyad-level but also broader conditions in the environment surrounding the exchange may matter.…”

What Makes Weak Ties Strong?

“…To this point, Schilke & Rossman (2018) (see also Rossman 2014), who supply experimental evidence, and Child (2021), who supplies qualitative evidence, suggest that people "obfuscate" their instrumental motives in order to mitigate their exchange partners' moral offense. This does not necessarily mean that productive use of social networks requires there be no perceptions of instrumental motives.…”

“…This does not necessarily mean that productive use of social networks requires there be no perceptions of instrumental motives. Rather, the argument by Schilke & Rossman (2018) and Child (2021) is precisely that the strategies they identify are used to obfuscate the transactional motives and not to necessarily remove the transactional motives. For instance, junior scholars may reach out to senior scholars in academic conferences in order to get their work noticed and receive feedback (and not because the junior scholars are big fans and thus think that they would intrinsically enjoy speaking with the senior scholars), and senior scholars may be very aware of such instrumental motives.…”

The influences of expressive and instrumental social ties in social commerce: integrating dyadic views from buyers and sellers

“…, 2012). Specifically, if one seeks to obtain material benefits from expressive ties, the other party involved tends to become suspicious about “the relationship’ intrinsic orientation” and may eventually end up wanting to withdraw her/his affective commitment, thereby hurting the relationship (Child, 2021, p. 4; Grayson, 2007; Silver, 1990; Zelizer, 2006). Lao Tzu, one of the most influential Chinese philosophers, had a similar viewpoint: “true friendships involve little material exchange, and the friendship relationship should be as simple and pure as water.”…”