Do Chinese and Americans reward the same behaviors in the same way? Using differences along Hofstede's (1980) dimension of individualism-collectivism, it was predicted that Chinese would he more moderate in their overt responses than Americans. Subjects were presented with a scenario in which the target person (TP) either facilitated or hindered his group's completion of a class project. At a perceptual level both Chinese and American subjects rated the helpful TP as more and equally contributive and the unhelpful TP as more but equally unproductive. In their overt reactions to the TP, both cultural groups were rewarding to the helpful TP and punitive towards the unhelpful TP. As predicted, however, the Chinese were less rewarding to the helpful TP and less punitive towards the unhelpful TP than were American subjects. We believe that this tendency towards moderation in the overt Chinese reaction functions to support group harmony and integrity. Future studies varying socio-emotion-al as well as task inputs are discussed in relation to exploring a pan-cultural model of equity in social exchange.