Chapter 2, Reciprocity

In Chapter 2, the principle of Reciprocity is explained.

Reciprocity

According to sociologists and anthropologists, one of the most widespread and basic norms of human culture is the rule of reciprocation. The rule is that if someone does something for you, you will want to do something in return. This is commonly know as “you scratch my back I’ll scratch your back”.

This sense of future obligation ensures that relationships continue, and that transactions and/or exchanges that are beneficial to society continue.

The decision to comply with someone's request is frequently based upon the Rule of Reciprocity. Again, a possible and profitable tactic to gain probable compliance would be to give something to someone before asking for a favor in return.

The opportunity to exploit this tactic is due to three characteristics of the Rule of Reciprocity:

The key to using the Rule of Reciprocity

1. The rule is extremely powerful, often overwhelming the influence of other factors that normally determine compliance with a request.
2. The rule applies even to uninvited first favors, which reduces our ability to decide whom we wish to owe and putting the choice in the hands of others
3. The rule can spur unequal exchanges. That is; to be rid of the uncomfortable feeling of indebtedness, an individual will often agree to a request for a substantially larger favor, than the one he or she first received.

Another way in which the Rule of Reciprocity can increase compliance involves a simple variation on the basic theme: instead of providing a favor first that stimulates a returned favor, an individual can make instead an initial concession that stimulates a return concession. These are described in two variants below:

The "Rejection then retreat" variant of reciprocity The "Large then smaller" variant of reciprocity

Resisting the rule of reciprocity

The best defense against manipulation by the use of the Rule of Reciprocity to gain compliance is not the total rejection of initial offers by others. But rather, accepting initial favors or concessions in good faith, while also remaining prepared to see through them as tricks should they later be proven so. Once they are seen in this way, there is no longer a need to feel the necessity to respond with a favor or concession.

Practical tips

1. When you ask for something, always start with something big. Move than to something smaller
2. Provide gifts/favours to your customers

Examples of the rule in action

Free Coke

A subject who participated in the study found himself rating, along with another subject, the quality of some paintings as part of an experiment on “art appreciation.” The other rater-we can call him Joe-was only posing as a fellow subject and was actually Dr. Regan’s assistant. For our purposes, the experiment took place under two different conditions.

1. In some cases, Joe did a small, unsolicited favor for the true subject. During a short rest period, he left the room for a couple of minutes and returned with two bottles of Coca-Cola, one for the subject and one for himself, saying, “I asked him [the experimenter] if I could get myself a Coke, and he said it was okay, so I bought one for you, too.”
2. In other cases, Joe did not provide the subject with a favor; he simply returned from the two-minute break empty-handed.

The rule for reciprocity overpowers the influence of "liking"

Afterwards, Joe asked the class if they would like to buy lotery tickets from him. Under the feeling that "they owed him", Joe solde twice as much lotery tickets in case 1 than in case 2. The interesting thing about this experiment was that the relation between liking and 'buying the tickets' was completely wiped out in the condition under which subjects had been given a Coke by Joe. For those who owed him a favor, it made no difference whether they liked him. '

The Rule Enforces Uninvited Debts

The power of the reciprocity rule is such that by first doing us a favor, strange, disliked, or unwelcome others can enhance the chance that we will comply with one of their requests. However, there is another aspect of the rule, besides its power, that allows this phenomenon to occur.

Another person can trigger a feeling of indebtedness by doing us an uninvited favor. Recall that the rule only states that we should provide to others the kind of actions they have provided us; it does not require us to have asked for what we have received in order to feel obligated to repay. For instance

• The Disabled American Veterans organization reports that its simple mail appeal for donations produces a response rate of about 18 percent. But when the mailing also includes an unsolicited gift (gummed, individualized address labels), the success rate nearly doubles to 35 percent.
• Other example in the book relates to the Hare Krishnas giving away a free bagavath gita before asking for a fee.

The Rule Can Trigger Unfair Exchanges

There is yet one other feature of the reciprocity rule that allows it to be exploited for profit. The rule was developed to promote equal exchanges between partners, yet it can be used to bring about decidedly unequal results. The rule demands that one sort of action be reciprocated with a similar sort of action.Within the similar-action boundaries, considerable flexibility is allowed. A small initial favor can produce a sense of obligation to agree to a substantially larger return favor. Even something as small as the price of a drink can produce a feeling of debt. A student expressed it quite plainly in a paper she wrote: “Alter learning the hard way, I no longer let a guy I meet in a club buy my drinks because I don’t want either of us to feel that I am obligated sexually.”

Reciprocal concessions

There is a second way to employ the reciprocity rule to get someone to comply with a request. The author of the book gives an example of a boy scout thatintroduced himself and said that he was selling tickets to the annual Boy Scouts circus. He asked to buy any at five dollars a piece. The autgor declined. “Well," the boy said, “if you don’t want io buy any tickets, how about buying some of our big chocolate bars? They’re only a dollar each.” The author bougth these and realized that something noteworthy had happened.

The general rule says that a person who acts in a certain way toward us is entitled to a similar return action. Another consequence of the rule, however, is an obligation to make a concession to someone who has made a concession to us. By seeing the second offer as a concession the Boy Scout made, the author felt obliged to honor the purchase of the chocolat to "get even".