He spent a number of years as a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and was the first editor of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
The research group that he headed at UNC was regularly attended by Harry Upshaw, Jack Brehm, Kurt Back, and Edward E. Jones.
The early variations of Interdependence Theory[1] stem from Alvin Ward Gouldner's (1960) norm of reciprocity, which argues that people ought to return benefits given to them in a relationship.
Peter M. Blau built on the work done by George C. Homans in Exchange and Power in Social Life (1964).
Thibaut's later research was in the area of procedural justice, where he co-authored a book with legal expert Laurens Walker.